Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Non-ketotic hyperglycemia hemichorea is a movement disorder characterized by irregular, involuntary and abrupt hyperkinetic movements caused by hyperglycemia. The pathophysiology remains unclear however there are several theories on its mechanism. The diagnosis is confirmed by presence of involuntary irregular movements combined with findings of hyperdensities on the basal ganglia in cranial computed tomography scan (CT-scan) or magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI...

Irisin is an adipomyokine produced during physical activity and implicated in the browning of adipose tissue. Existing evidence suggests an inverse relationship between irisin plasma levels and adverse metabolic outcomes; however, the exact impact of diet on irisin levels remains unclear. We aimed to assess the effects of two dietary patterns, Christian Orthodox fasting (OF) and 16:8 time-restricted eating (TRE), on irisin concentrations among overweight, metabolically healthy...

Annexin 1 (ANXA1) is a Ca 2+ and phospholipid binding protein that plays an important role as a mediator of glucocorticoid (GC) action in the host-defence and neuroendocrine-systems. Our previous studies (Christian et al., 1998) in ovarietomised rats +/- oestradiol (E2) replacement suggested oestrogen may exert an inhibitory influence on ANXA1 expression in the pituitary gland. Our more recent finding that ANXA1 knockout mice exhibit unexpected sexual dimorphisms in...

The activin-binding protein follistatin is produced by folliculostellate (FS) cells of the anterior pituitary. FS cells make numerous contacts with the classical endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary including gonadotrophs. Follistatin released from the FS cells could therefore play a role in the regulation of gonadotrophin secretion, in particular of FSH. We have previously shown by confocal microscopy (1) that annexin 1, which is also produced by FS cells, is secreted fr...

Annexin I (ANXA1), a Ca2+- and phospholipid-binding protein is an important mediator of glucocorticoid (GC) action in the host defence and neuroendocrine systems. In the anterior pituitary ANXA1 is highly expressed by the folliculo-stellate (FS) cells (1). We have shown that GCs cause the externalization of annexin I in a FS cell line (murine TtT/GF) despite the fact that ANXA1 lacks a signal sequence and is not packaged in secretory granules. In bacteria and yeast ...

Neuroendocrine tumours have a number of different classification and staging systems. I will present the latest of these, which include the latest WHO system with the implications for new entities and how they are diagnosed pathologically and any difficulties that arise from this. There will also be a more general discussion about areas that are difficult for the pathologist and where we can add value to the MDT discussion....

An increasing proportion of people living in our 24/7 culture complain about insomnia symptoms, i.e., they experience problems to fall and/or stay asleep. As demonstrated by epidemiological studies, chronic sleep loss is correlated with weight gain. To investigate whether sleep loss would alter energy metabolism in favour of weight gain, my lab therefore performed a series of sleep loss experiments in metabolically healthy normal-weight subjects. These studies demonstrated tha...

Recent advances in tridimensional (3D) tissue imaging and development of reporter proteins have provided new insight into the dynamic relationship between tissue structure, function and dysfunction in a number of fields of research. In developmental biology 3D microscopy has enabled building of quantitative 3D atlases of embryo morphology and gene expression at cellular resolution and in neuroscience ‘connectomics’, the building of 3D brain connectivity maps is a rap...

Three independent studies identified SNPs in the first intron of the gene FTO as being strongly and consistently associated with BMI and/or obesity at significance levels (P=10−7 to P=10−30) unobserved so far in genetics of obesity. The three studies estimated the putative effect around 1% of the total variance of BMI. So far, this represents the strongest effect for a common variant in obesity.This result ...

Glucocorticoids act within the pituitary gland to maintain the blood levels of glucocorticoids within appropriate limits by negative feedback on the secretion of corticotrophin (ACTH). Annexin 1 (ANXA1) is a calcium- and phospholipid binding protein which was originally identified as a mediator of the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids in the host defence system. Subsequent work has shown that it that plays an important role in the early delayed (30 min-3 h) feedback...