Endocrine Abstracts

Background - Adverse fetal nutritional supply results in programmed endothelial dysfunction and hypertension in offspring. Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS), Endothelin-1 (ET-1), and human Cationic Amino acid Transporter-1 (hCAT-1) are key players in endothelial function. We have shown that hCAT-1 is down-regulated in smaller neonates. One possible explanatory mechanism is DNA methylation, which reduces gene expression. In mice and rat models maternal diets with altered leve...

Background: A functioning Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is essential for life. Prolonged high circulating levels of glucocorticoids inhibit pituitary Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene expression. Repression continues even in the absence of continued glucocorticoid exposure. To date there are no molecular explanations for this observation.Hypothesis: Long-term exposure to glucocorticoids causes de-novo DNA methylation of the pituit...