Endocrine Abstracts

In the adult animal the Leydig cells are the primary source of androgens in the male and are required to maintain fertility and male behaviour. To help towards understanding the development, control and function of these cells we have analysed the adult Leydig cell transcriptome using the SAGE technique which provides a comprehensive and quantitative gene expression profile of cells or tissues. Leydig cells were isolated from normal adult mouse testes using collagenase and the...

Objective: Insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II), a critical regulator of placental development, enhances proliferation and survival of human cytotrophoblasts by signalling through the IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R). Excess IGF-II binds to IGF-2R, which mediates its transport to the lysosomes for degradation. Although considered to act solely as an IGF-II clearance receptor, IGF-2R has been implicated in mediating IGF-II-stimulated migration and invasion in trophoblast. We therefore...