Endocrine Abstracts

Dietary guidelines in the UK and worldwide recommend reducing the quantity of free sugars in the diet. The consumption of foods high in free sugars can lead to postprandial hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinemia, which have been implicated in the development of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Rare sugars (naturally occurring monosaccharides which hardly exist in nature) have been found to suppress the postprandial elevation in blood glucose and improve g...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are lipophilic chemicals that chronically accumulate in the body during lifetime from fetal life. Some POPs alter the endocrine metabolism and are considered as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Human exposure to EDCs, even at low doses, raises some serious concerns for human health because they can participate in hormone-dependent cancer initiation and progression (prostate, breast, testis). These mostly non-metabolizable molecules ar...

Hypocalcemia is a classic complication after total thyroidectomy, mostly due to post-operative hypoparathyroidism. However others factors, like vitamin D deficiency, may contribute to this hypocalcemia.Objective: To determine if vitamin D preoperative status influence early postoperative serum calcium levels after total thyroidectomy.Patients and methods: Seventy-nine patients (65 women/14 men), mean age 52.8 (±12.7), were inc...

Androgen signaling is essential for male reproductive development and masculinization during fetal life. Developmental exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, not least those that disrupt androgen action, can lead to reproductive disorders such as cryptorchidism, hypospadias, and poor fertility. In rodent toxicity studies, as well as human epidemiological studies, a general biomarker for compromised fetal androgen signaling is a shorter anogenital distance (AGD) in male of...

Lifelong thyroid health depends on establishment of thyroid gland structure and function during early life development. However, thyroid development can be disrupted and lead to early- or adult life thyroid disorders. Still, the molecular machinery underpinning thyroid gland development remains poorly understood, particularly after the onset of fetal thyroid function. Here we used bulk-RNA-barcoding and sequencing (BRB-seq) to map the thyroid gland transcriptome as it undergoe...

Large adrenal masses are strongly suggestive of malignancy. Nevertheless, bilateral adrenal masses are less common (around 20% of incidental adrenal lesions). Metastases and lymphoma are more frequent (especially when aging), and not so easy to differentiate on CT or MRI. Simple biological markers, such as plasma LDH or beta2microglobulin, could help.Case report: A 69-year-old patient was admitted for abdominal pain with progressive lethargy. Abdominal C...

Introduction: Constitutional thinness (CT) is an underweight state characterized by normal menstruations and no change in feeding behaviour. Thinness is the only resemblance between Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and CT. Removal of amenorrhea in the new DSM 5 definition of AN might lead to misdiagnosis between these two populations. The objective of this study was to compare CT, AN and Control subjects in terms of biological, anthropometric, and psychological markers in order to better...

Adipose tissue inflammation may be an important mechanism in the development of systemic insulin resistance, such that modulation of this system may be a therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes and obesity-related disorders. AMPK has anti-inflammatory properties, yet the anti-inflammatory actions of AMPK in adipocytes remain poorly characterised. We questioned whether AMPK activation influences pro-inflammatory responses in cultured adipocytes in basal and stimulated conditions...

The increasing global prevalence of obesity requires urgent intervention to limit the anticipated surge of associated cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality. The energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is one proposed target for treating metabolic disorders and is downregulated in adipose tissue of obese insulin resistant individuals. Given the strong relationship between metabolic syndrome and overactivity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) we inves...

Testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART) are frequently detected in male patients with 21-hydroxylase (21-OH) deficiency. Increase in plasma ACTH levels, due to cortisol deficit, is responsible for TART growth. Indeed, glucocorticoid substitution reduces both plasma ACTH and TART development in the majority of patients. Nevertheless, some patients with TART are resistant to the glucocorticoid treatment, suggesting the existence of other factors stimulating TART growth. The aim of...