Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: It is known sex steroids affect fat distribution with men and women. With men there is a tendency to deposit fat abdominally. Men are more likely to have more visceral fat than premenopausal women, with whom the preferential fat distribution is gluteofemoral and the percentage of body fat overall higher. Androgens may affect fat tissue with men either directly by androgen receptor stimulation, or indirectly by oestrogen receptor stimulation after aromatization. Inte...

KCNJ11 as well as UCP2 genes are involved via modulation of ATP concentration in pancreatic beta-cells in control of insulin secretion. The aim of study was to compare genotypic distribution of E23K (KCNJ11) and G-866A (UCP2) polymorphisms between diabetics, their offspring and controls and to study the possible association of these polymorphisms with biochemical and anthropometric parameters.The study entered 302 diabetics, 165 offspring, 241 controls. ...

Familial medullary thyroid carcinoma (FMTC) is an autosomal dominant inherited disease, characterized by germ-line mutations in the RET proto-oncogene, mainly in exons 10 and 11, but also in exons 13, 14 and 15. Recently, there were described also mutations in exon 8 and 16 associated with FMTC. In our laboratory the screening of six risk exons of the RET proto-oncogene in 141 families with MTC was performed. 10 families were classified as clinically FMTC. In 4 of them mutatio...

Objective: To investigate a possible association of DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 alleles with the chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) development in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM1) manifested between 18 to 40 years of age. Patients and methods: In 118 patients with DM1 (age at DM1 diagnosis 28.0 (6.9) years, duration of DM1 14.0 (6.3) years) HLA-DRB1, -DQA1 and -DQB1 alleles were analysed by sequence specific oligonucleotide probes and sequence specific primers. AT was pre...

Introduction: To understand the pathological changes associated with glucose homeostasis in old age, it is necessary to know the natural changes in the processing of proinsulin into mature insulin. Surprisingly, while there is abundant information about insulin function in diabetics, the situation in healthy adults and old humans was rarely examined.The study aimed: To determine how the proinsulin secretion in individuals with normal glucose tolerance ch...

Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is manifested by progressive loss of cognitive function. Neuroactive steroids and their metabolites have an important regulatory role in the nervous system, affect neuronal plasticity, response to stress, learning and memory and have a neuroprotective effect. One of the not fully elucidated risk factors for AD is impaired glucose tolerance/type 2 diabetes (T2D). It is well known that lower androgen...

Introduction: The SNP rs7578597 (Thr1187Ala) of THADA gene was identified in GWA studies as a novel type 2 diabetes risk locus. Nevertheless, subsequent studies of this SNP effect have been inconclusive. In some studies, rs7578597 has been associated with insulin secretion but no significant correlation with type 2 diabetes has been reported. Product of THADA gene is considered to be involved in apoptosis. Whether rs7578597 affects insulin secretion throught the apoptosis of p...

The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with features of the insulin resistance syndrome and altered glucose homeostasis. Factors that play an important role in these processes are still emerging. Adipokines and pro-inflammatory cytokines may be involved in development of insulin resistance in PCOS. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between adiponectin, resistin, leptin, interleukin (IL) 4, IL6, IL10, tumor necrosis factor α (T...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate derivative (DHEA-S) are major adrenal secretory products in humans, but their biological function is not still fully explained. Some studies reported negative correlation of DHEA(S) with BMI, fat distribution, and correlations with insulin sensitivity or lipid spectra, but the results are often controversial. Our objective was to assess the correlations of DHEA and DHEA-S levels in Czech non-diabetic population with anthropometric,...

SHBG (sex hormone-binding globulin) is a transport protein specific for dihydrotestosterone, testosterone and estradiol. The missense mutation in exon 8 (GAC→AAC) causing the amino acid exchange D327N correlates accordingly to literature data with higher SHBG levels.We studied the possible association of this polymorphism with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and its influence on anthropometric and biochemical parameters in 247 PCOS patients in com...