Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder amongst women of reproductive age and is associated with various cardiometabolic perturbations, in addition to chronic anovulation and factors related to androgen excess. Indeed androgen excess has been associated with increased cardiovascular risk in women; serum testosterone correlates with indices of subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Moreover, women with PCOS, as compared with...

Leptin, a 167 aminoacid protein product of the ob gene, is an adipocyte-derived hormone that acts as a major regulator for food intake and energy homeostasis. Leptin is expressed mainly in white adipose tissue, but also in stomach and placenta. Leptin circulates in the serum in a free form or bound to leptin-binding proteins. Since its discovery, our understanding of leptin’s biological functions has expanded from antiobesity to broad effects on reproduction, hemat...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder of young women and depending on the diagnostic criteria, it affects 6% to 20% of reproductive aged women. PCOS is also the most common cause of hyperandrogenism in young women with the theca cells of the ovary being the source of androgen excess. PCOS is rarely associated with severe hyperandrogenaemia and atypical features such as rapid progression, presence of virilization or very high Testo...

Orexins, acting via their receptors, are involved in the control of feeding, sleep-wakefulness, arousal, neuroendocrine homeostasis and autonomic regulation. However, the 5′ structure and regulation of human orexin type 2 receptor (OX2R) gene remains is not known. We present original findings regarding the 5′ structural organization of the human OX2R gene and identify four OX2R mRNA transcripts that differ in their 5′-untranslated region (UTR). The four trans...

Orexins, acting via their receptors, are involved in the control of feeding, sleep-wakefulness, arousal, neuroendocrine homeostasis and autonomic regulation. However, the 5′ structure and regulation of human orexin type 2 receptor (OX2R) gene remains is not known. We present original findings regarding the 5′ structural organization of the human OX2R gene and identify four OX2R mRNA transcripts that differ in their 5′-untranslated region (UTR). The four trans...

Introduction: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have a clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, lipid abnormalities, impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and hypertension. Exercise is reported to lower cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and improve reproductive health. The effect of exercise on plasma adiponectin and the components of leptin system, namely plasma free (FL) and bound (BL) leptin concentrations, have not been previously...

Background and aims: Mechanism underlying the IR (Insulin-resistance) remains yet to be identified. Resistin has been shown to antagonize insulin action, and thus might be implicated in the pathogenesis of IR. In contrast, adiponectin has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity and improve glucose tolerance. We aimed to test the hypothesis that resistin levels might correlate positively with the indices of insulin resistance, while the opposite might be true for adiponectin...

Besides playing a role in energy homeostasis, orexins have been reported to have divergent effects on physiological behaviour, cardiovascular regulation, glucocorticoid release, as well as playing a key role in the aetiopathogenesis of narcolepsy. Recent studies using rodent models suggest orexins may also be involved in the regulation of thermogenesis. For example, mice lacking the prepro-orexin gene are significantly hypophagic but have normal body weight suggesting differen...

Orexins (A & B) are derived from a common 130 amino acid precursor peptide, prepro-orexin, by proteolytic cleavage, and orchestrate their actions by binding and activating two types of G-protein coupled receptors, orexin-1 receptor (OX1R) and orexin-2 receptor (OX2R). The OX1R preferentially binds orexin-A, whilst OX2R binds both orexin-A and ?B, with similar affinity. Besides playing a role in the regulation of feeding and energy homeostasis, orexins appear to increase se...

Recently, two new peptides named Orexin-A and Orexin-B, have been implicated in the regulation of feeding behaviour. Studies in starved rats have shown that catabolic activity quickly predominates, reinforced by elevated corticosterone, not driven by ACTH, implicating adrenal activity as a metabolic regulator. In view of these findings, we sought to investigate whether orexin and orexin receptors are present in human fetal and adult adrenals, and therefore may be implicated in...