Endocrine Abstracts

The term Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) encompasses all those vesicular structures (surrounded by a cell membrane) released into the extracellular environment. Virtually all cells are capable of producing EVs through highly conserved mechanisms in evolution. These vesicles serve as a communication channel between different cells of the organism due to their capacity to exchange biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids or carbohydrates. Their membranous packaging g...

Oncogenic activation and anticancer therapies are known to evoke – especially if apoptotic cell death is no longer available – cellular senescence as another stress-responsive safeguard and ultimate cell-cycle exit program in (pre-)malignant cells. Hence, oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) and therapy-induced senescence (TIS) are considered to operate as important anti-tumor principles. However, we previously reported (Dörr-JR et al., Nature, 2013) that ...

Ghrelin, an appetite-stimulatory hormone secreted by the stomach, was discovered as a ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). Through GHSR, ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH) secretion, a function that evolved to protect against starvation-induced hypoglycemia. Though the biology mediated by ghrelin has been described in great detail, regulation of ghrelin action is poorly understood. Here, we report the discovery of liver-expressed antimicrobial peptid...