Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Tumours with aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting (AIP) mutations often show an unusually aggressive and invasive clinical course as up to 80% of AIP positive pituitary adenomas have a certain degree of extrasellar extension. The exact mechanisms by which AIP inactivation promotes an aggressive behaviour remain unknown. The majority of adenohypophysis is composed of sinuous cords of epithelial cells and consequently, molecules that can induce remodellin...

IGFBP-2 represents a multifunctional protein with effects on growth, reproductive development, aging, and metabolism. For the expression of these diverse effects in vivo, IGFBP-2 has a number of binding sites for IGFs, integrins, and proteoglycans. In order to assess the relative contributions of these binding sites to the multiple effects of IGFBP-2, we have developed transgenic mouse models overexpressing intact or mutant IGFBP-2. Here we discuss functions of the RG...

Background: The UK acromegaly register reported that <60% of acromegalics on medical therapy had controlled disease (1). Pegvisomant, a growth hormone antagonist (GHA), controls disease in >95% cases, but is not cost-effective and requires high dose daily injections (2). We have developed a fusion technology for making a cost-effective long-acting GH molecule (3), and generated a GHA by linking mutated growth hormone to its binding protein (GHBP).<p class="abstext"...

Introduction: Interleukin (IL)-6 can activate signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3-dependent signaling similar to leptin in neurons. Here we demonstrate that central application of IL-6 suppresses feeding and improves glucose tolerance in mice. Furthermore, we found that central IL-6 trans-signaling is enhanced in obese mice to improve anorexigenic and glucoregulatory effects of IL-6.Methods/design: Glucose tolerance and insulin sensi...

The G protein-coupled receptor PROKR2 play an important and not fully understood role in GnRH-secreting neurons physiology. Indeed, mutations of PROKR2 in humans are known to cause Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism (CHH) although with an important reproductive and olfactory phenotypic heterogeneity. The attempt to mimic PROKR2 human allelic variants in mouse model has so far failed to give insights into the mechanisms involved. The zebrafish (ZF), due to its amenability...