Endocrine Abstracts

Neuroendocrine tumours of the GI tract originate from enterochromaffin cells. Somatostatin analogues are the mainstay drugs for therapy in these cancers as they ameliorate symptoms and lower hormone secretion, but only in 30–70% of patients. Such tumours are also associated with angiogenesis which has been used as a prognostic indicator; adenosine, the major regulator of angiogenesis, is released by enhanced degradation of ATP, during cellular stress, damage and hypoxia.<...

Complement C5a is associated with various pro-inflammatory effects such as chemotaxis, production of superoxides, histamine release, vasodilatation and smooth muscle contraction. In sepsis, excessive production of C5a can lead to multi-organ failure. C5a mediates its actions through the C5a receptor (C5aR) but may also bind to a second receptor called C5L2 that acts as a decoy for removing excess C5a. C5a is also rapidly cleaved to a less active form, C5adesR; C5L2, in contras...

We previously showed that adenosine stimulates IL-6 secretion from TtT/GF cells suggesting that adenosine is an important regulator of folliculostellate (FS) cell function. Gap-junction communication is also important for FS cell function so the aim of this study was to investigate the action of adenosine on connexin 43 (Cx 43) expression and intercellular communication.Adenosine production, as measured by reverse-phase fluorescent HPLC, was easily detec...