Endocrine Abstracts

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Adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (FABP4) is emerging as a novel risk marker for metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis. In this context we recently showed that FABP4 released by human adipocytes suppresses cardiomyocyte contraction, thus suggesting a pathogenic role for FABP4 in the cardiac dysfunction in obesity. Since a new FABP4 inhibitor which competitively inhibits the binding of endogenous fatty acids to FABP4 was effective in the treatment of atherosclerosis and dia...

The adrenal gland displays an important role in integrating neuronal, immune, vascular, metabolic and endocrine signals under a common organ capsule. The adrenal is the central organ of the stress response system, responsible for responses to acute and chronic stress stimuli and, thereby, playing a major role in numerous stress-related disorders. While for other diseases translational scientists developed programs to generate healthy cells to regenerate damaged tissues in pati...

Primary adrenal insufficiency is due to impairment of the adrenal gland with ~80% of the cases being due to autoimmune adrenalitis (Addison’s disease). Other cases of primary adrenal insufficiency might be idiopathic, caused by adrenal metastases, or due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Adrenal insufficiency might also be induced by infectious diseases e.g. COVID-19 and, as seen lately in an increasing number of patients, by novel medications targeting hypertension and ...

Obesity has long been recognized as an independent risk factor in heart failure. The mechanisms proposed to explain this correlation include hemodynamic changes secondary to obesity, leading to left ventricular remodeling and systolic dysfunction, and cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by increased lipid accumulation into cardiomyocytes. Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ that secretes a wide variety of bioactive factors, which seem to mediate communication between adipose tiss...

Within the adrenal gland, chromaffin cells and their progenitors are exposed to a wide variety of growth factors and hormones, including adrenal androgens such as DHEA. The DHEA producing-zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex is in close proximity to the neural crest-derived catecholamine-producing chromaffin cells of the medulla, enabling strong paracrine interactions. In vivo studies in humans revealed that congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase ...

Objectives: Oxidative stress is of critical importance in the pathogenesis of endocrinopathies. Since cholesterol serves as a major source of steroid hormone synthesis we investigated the effect of hypochlorite-modified low density lipoprotein (LDL) on aldosterone and cortisol release from human adrenocortical NCI-H295R cells.Methods: Native LDL obtained from healthy volunteers was oxidized to varying degrees by sodium hypochlorite. The resulting modifie...

Chromaffin cells from adrenal medulla are the main source of epinephrine and norepinephrine hormones which are known to mediate so called fight-or-flight response to multiple environmental stress conditions. Chromaffin cells together with sympathetic neurons share the same sympathoadrenal cell lineage, but in contrast to neurons they maintain their proliferation during whole life span. However, little is known about chromaffin cells regeneration in an adult adrenal medulla.</p...

This study examined whether different forms of hereditary pheochromocytoma are characterized by different catecholamine phenotypes and whether this is reflected by differences in plasma concentrations of normetanephrine, metanephrine and methoxytyramine – the respective O-methylated metabolites of norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine. Subjects included 154 patients with hereditary pheochromocytoma, 72 with tumors associated with von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) syndrome, ...

One important risk factor for the development of arterial hypertension is abdominal obesity. Aldosterone, secreted by adrenocortical cells, promotes sodium and water retention and by that regulates blood pressure homeostasis. Increased serum aldosterone levels have been linked to the development of obesity hypertension. Therefore, identifying the link between obesity and increased aldosterone secretion is of high importance for the management of obesity hypertension.<p cla...