Endocrine Abstracts

The evolution of aquatic vertebrates to dry land required adaptation of physiological systems concerned with water and mineral ion homeostasis. Two factors, calcitonin (CT) and parathyroid hormone (PTH), have ultimately become the principal hypo- and hyper-calcaemic factors respectively, in terrestrial vertebrates. Fish CT has been isolated and shown to be hypocalcaemic in mammals; its role in fish physiology is less well defined, although it may control calcium influx via the...