Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Although vitamin D is well known for its function in calcium homeostasis and bone mineralisation, several studies have shown an effect on physical function and muscle strength. Also, vitamin D has been associated with pulmonary function and the incidence of airway infections. As vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in COPD-patients, supplementation might have a beneficial effect in these patients.Objective: To assess the effect of vitam...

Systemically administered glucocorticoids are known to cause hyperglycaemia, however there is a paucity of literature on the true prevalence, predictors or clinical impact of glucocorticoid-induced hyperglycaemia in hospital in-patients.This study examined glucocorticoid-induced hyperglycaemia in patients receiving >25 mg prednisolone; or >8 mg dexamethasone; or equivalent, for any indication over a 3 month period.64 consec...

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Metabolic fluxes in the liver demonstrate circadian rhythms. The hepatic circadian clock is a cell- autonomous protein network that governs the switch between the fasted and fed states via a series of transcriptional-translational feedback loops (TTLs). Diet is a powerful zeitgeber which can reprogramme the liver clock to follow eating schedule rather than the geophysical day-night cycle. Diet- induced circadian disruption has been implicated in the pathogenesis of common meta...

Background: The Ins2+/G32S mutation in the KINGS mouse drives beta-cell endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. The result of this is sexually dimorphic; males develop overt diabetes by 5-weeks (>16.7mM) whilst females remain normoglycemic. Previous studies have shown that high-fat feeding increases beta-cell ER stress, whilst GLP1-receptor agonists reduce this. We investigated whether altering ER stress could promote diabetes development in female KINGS mic...

Despite well-established sex differences in blood glucose homeostasis, female mice are highly underrepresented in preclinical diabetes research. Reasons for this may be the milder diabetic phenotype often seen in female mice and/or the assumption that the estrus cycle causes excessive variability in blood glucose concentrations. During this workshop talk we will discuss these points and the importance of accounting for sex differences. Using continuous glucose monitoring techn...

Recent years have seen many exciting developments in the field of steroidogenesis. These include improved diagnostics through mass spectrometry, novel clinical relevance attributed to steroids previously deemed irrelevant and successful implementation of new anti-cancer treatments. Prostate cancer is a prime example of the latter with the recent confirmation that castration-resistant disease is still androgen-dependent and susceptible to hormonal manipulation with next generat...

More and more devices are becoming available for people with diabetes. Should you advise your patients to use a pedometer? How can insulin pumps be of help? An insulin pump is the best way to accommodate the changing insulin needs over the 24 hours of the day and gives one the opportunity to temporarily stop insulin administration in case of unanticipated exercise, which is impossible when using injection therapy. Trials have mainly been done in Type 1 diabetes, but a recent t...

Objective: Opioids are among the most commonly used symptomatic treatments of somatoform pain disorder. Human and animal studies suggest that chronic exposure to opioids suppresses the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. We report on a rare case of secondary adrenal failure and secondary amenorrhea due to hydromorphone treatment.Case report: A 32-year-old female patient presented with fatigue, weakness, orthos...

Mutations in GHR, STAT5B and IGF1 lead to GH-insensitivity but often the cause of reduced GH-sensitivity remains unknown. We describe the identification of a mutation in the MVK gene encoding mevalonate kinase (MK) in a pedigree investigated for STAT5B-deficiency.A 15-year-old male born to consanguineous parents was referred for short stature (height 125.8 cm; −5.6 SDS) and arthritis. He presented, aged 2 years, with fev...