Endocrine Abstracts

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are usually taken to include gastro-enterohepatic tumors including islet cell tumours and carcinoids; recent data suggest an overall incidence of around 30/million/year, but since such tumours usually present late curative surgery is rarely an option and chemotherapy of limited benefit. Radionuclide scintigraphy with somatostatin (SMS) analogues such as 111In-octreotide demonstrate the presence of SMS receptors in some 80%-90% of NETS; we have use...

Pituitary tumours are usually benign and present early due to hormonal hypersecretion: the mean size of corticotroph adenomas is only 100mm3. Furthermore, of the 6 essential stages in carcinogenesis (activation of oncogenes, loss of tumour suppressor genes, inhibition of apoptosis, immortalisation, vascular invasion and metastasis), probably only the first 3 are relevant to these tumours: this renders them a valuable paradigm for the earliest stages of oncogenesis. Menin and P...

Ashley Grossman, Department of Endocrinology, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK AbstractAshley Grossman initially graduated with a BA in Psychology and Social Anthropology from the University of London, then entered University College Hospital Medical School in London where he graduated with an MBBS, and with a BSc in Neuroscience. He joined the Department of Endocrinology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1978, ...

Ghrelin is a circulating growth hormone-releasing and appetite-inducing brain–gut peptide. It needs to be acylated on its serine-3 with octanoate for its endocrine actions. The acyl-transferase that catalyses ghrelin octanoylation has been recently identified and named GOAT (ghrelin O-acyltransferase), which is coded by the MBOAT4 gene. This study aimed to investigate GOAT expression in human. The distribution of GOAT mRNA expression was studied in various human ti...

Introduction: Ghrelin is a potent orexigenic brain-gut peptide with lipogenic and diabetogenic effects, possibly mediated by GHS-R. Cannabinoids also have orexigenic and lipogenic effects. AMPK is a regulator of energy homeostasis and we have previously shown that ghrelin and cannabinoids stimulate hypothalamic AMPK activity while inhibiting it in liver and adipose tissue, suggesting that AMPK mediates both the central appetite-inducing and peripheral effects of ghrelin and ca...

We report the use of Gamma knife radiosurgery (GK) to 15 somatotroph adenomas. Eight patients had refractory acromegaly despite maximal conventional treatments: all had undergone conventional radiotherapy (CRT), mean interval between CRT and GK 15.6 years. Six had undergone surgery, two on more than one occasion. Five were receiving somatostatin analog therapy, one was receiving dopamine agonist therapy, one was on pegvisomant alone. All had radiologically defined disease, wel...

Cushing’s syndrome is characterized by a diverse set of clinical manifestations, including hypertension, apparent obesity and metabolic aberrations such as diabetes, dyslipidaemia, ultimately leading to the metabolic syndrome. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an intracellular energy sensor. It integrates nutritional and hormonal signals by switching on catabolic pathways, such as fatty acid oxidation and glycolysis and switching off anabolic pathways, such as fatty ...

Cannabinoids and ghrelin exert hypothalamic orexigenic effects and independent peripheral effects have also been reported. We have recently reported that ghrelin and cannabinoids can stimulate hypothalamic and heart AMPK activity, and can inhibit liver and adipose tissue AMPK activity, in rats (Kola et al., JBC, 2005). These data are concordant with the known orexigenic, adipogenic and diabetogenic effects of these compounds as well as with their beneficial effects on t...

Introduction: Diagnosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) is often a challenge and involves biochemical characterisation and anatomic localisation of the tumour. Wherever feasible, curative surgical excision is the treatment of choice.Materials and Methods: Twenty four consecutive patients with pancreatic NETs were referred for consideration of surgery over a six-year period (1999–2005). Following use of multi imaging modalities to localis...

The effect of growth hormone (GH) replacement on thyroid function in hypopituitary patients has only been studied in small groups of children and adults with conflicting results.We aimed to define the effect and clinical significance of adult GH replacement on thyroid status in a large cohort of 243 patients with hypopituitarism due to various causes. 84 patients were considered euthyroid before GH treatment and 159 patients had central hypothyroidism an...