Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The NCYPDN plan describes a care model where children, young people (CYP) and families ‘co-design their care plan during appointments’ and ‘have a say in service planning.’ RCPCH ‘Voice Matters’ notes children want clinicians to ‘better understand how we are feeling, to ensure we’re involved in our treatment and have the support we need’. Our clinic experience found some CYP we...

This talk will cover the currently available evidence describing the endocrine and metabolic consequences of radiotherapy treatment to the hypothalamus and pituitary. A practical approach to surveillance, diagnosis and management of these consequences in childhood and adult cancer survivors will be provided....

Alternative promoters control many genes including prolactin (PRL), which in man is expressed at extra-pituitary sites controlled by an alternative promoter located 5.8 Kbp upstream of the pituitary transcription start site. Previous studies using short promoter fragments may be misleading, as the human hPRL genomic locus has many conserved far-upstream regions. To study the function of the alternative promoter, we engineered a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) expressing ...

Pituitary development, in particular the differentiation of anterior pituitary endocrine cells, remains to be fully understood, and may have implications for adult pituitary plasticity and hyperplasia. We have used prolactin-reporter transgenic rats to characterise prolactin transcription during the appearance of newly formed lactotroph cells during fetal development.Transgenic rats with the firefly luciferase reporter gene inserted into exon 1b of a 160...

Prolactin (PRL) is a hormone mainly produced by the lactotroph cells of the anterior pituitary gland. Besides its pivotal role in reproduction, PRL has also been found to have immuno-modulatory properties. The pituitary is the main source of circulating PRL, however it is also expressed in humans at extra-pituitary sites1. In extra-pituitary tissues, PRL mRNA contains an extra exon (exon 1a), and expression is regulated by an alternative promoter upstream of the pit...

Glucocorticoids are effective for the treatment of many chronic conditions but their use is associated with frequent and wide-ranging adverse effects including osteoporosis and growth retardation. The mechanisms that underlie the undesirable effects of GCs on skeletal development are unclear and there is no proven effective treatment to combat them. An in-vivo model that investigates the development and progression of GC-induced changes in bone is, therefore, importan...

Cancer and treatments for cancer can have a significant impact on bone health in both children and adults. There are emerging data that bone mineral density is often reduced in survivors of childhood cancers and survivors of both solid tumours and haematological malignancies in adults. Fracture rates in childhood cancer survivors have not been shown to be increased. Older adult cancer survivors, particularly those treated with aromatase inhibitors and androgen deprivation ther...

Glucocorticoids are effective for the treatment of many chronic conditions but their use is associated with frequent and wide-ranging adverse effects including osteoporosis and growth retardation. The mechanisms that underlie the undesirable effects of GCs on skeletal development are unclear and there is no proven effective treatment to combat them. An in-vivo model that investigates the development and progression of GC-induced changes in bone is, therefore, importan...

Cancer and treatments for cancer can have a significant impact on bone health in both children and adults. There are emerging data that bone mineral density is often reduced in survivors of childhood cancers and survivors of both solid tumours and haematological malignancies in adults. Fracture rates in childhood cancer survivors have not been shown to be increased. Older adult cancer survivors, particularly those treated with aromatase inhibitors and androgen deprivation ther...

Background: Hypothyroidism is characterised by insufficient secretion of the thyroid and its detection measured by elevated serum TSH levels.Although relatively common during pregnancy, untreated maternal hypothyroidism is associated with adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes such as preeclampsia, placental abruption and miscarriage, or foetal neurodevelopment defects.Highlighting a nurse led specialised telephone clinic in the c...