Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Type 1 Kidz is a project, facilitated by Investing in Children CiC, which offers regular group sessions to children and young people living with Type 1 Diabetes and their families across North East England. The aim is to support children and young people to share experiences and stories and learn together to improve their short and long term outcomes. This is supported by a Professional Steering Group.Methods: Monthly or quarterly group ses...

Primary Aldosteronism (PA), due to a unilateral aldosterone-producing adenoma of the adrenal (APA), is the commonest curable cause of Hypertension, but the prospects for cure fall with age. APAs rarely increase in size, suggesting an origin much earlier than the development of resistant hypertension. Most APAs have gain-of-function somatic mutations which result in increased Ca2+ entry, and constitutive activation of aldosterone production. Women with larger APAs, a...

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of hormone receptor positive breast cancer after menopause. The aromatase enzyme catalyzes the conversion of androgens into oestrogens and the breast adipose-specific expression of aromatase is hypothesized to be a major driver of breast cancer growth when ovarian oestrogen biosynthesis has ceased. We have found that aromatase is elevated in breast adipose stromal cells in relation to obesity and menopausal status. Furthermore, obes...

Primary Aldosteronism (PA), due to a unilateral aldosterone-producing adenoma of the adrenal (APA), is the commonest curable cause of Hypertension, but the prospects for cure fall with age. APAs rarely increase in size, suggesting an origin much earlier than the development of resistant hypertension. Most APAs have gain-of-function somatic mutations which result in increased Ca2+ entry, and constitutive activation of aldosterone production. Women with larger APAs, a...

Epigenetic events, such as gene promoter DNA hypermethylation linked to changes in gene expression, are causative of resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin in ovarian cancer cell line models, and associated with response to chemotherapy and survival of high grade serous ovarian cancer patients. We are studying the role of epigenetic change throughout the patient journey and how this associates with gene expression changes which can be selected for during ...

Dietary and physical activity lifestyle change remain key components in the management of type 2 diabetes. With dietary factors being of paramount importance. Despite this there remains controversy and confusion on which dietary method or pattern is the most effective in the management of a person’s glycaemia and weight, meaning that patients and clinicians struggle on which way to turn. This session will briefly examine the current dietary guidelines for type 2 diabetes....

Prostate cancer is projected to be the commonest cancer by 2030, with 1 in 8 men receiving a diagnosis in their lifetime. Although there are more than 400,000 cases in Europe diagnosed each year, many new prostate cancer treatments have been introduced and patients now live with their disease for many years. Consideration of the long-term consequences of treatment is of therefore of increasing importance. More than one third of patients with prostate cancer receive androgen de...

After the menopausal transition, the ovaries cease to make oestrogens, yet the incidence of breast cancer increases with aging and the majority of these tumours are ER positive. So, where is the oestrogen driving this tumour development coming from? Several extra-gonadal sites synthesize oestrogens from circulating C19 steroids, such as bone, brain, and adipose. The largest of these depots is the adipose tissue, and increased BMI is associated with increased breast cancer risk...

The gonadotrophin hormones comprise a common alpha subunit and a hormone specific beta subunit and their expression profiles differ during pituitary ontogeny. The transcriptional regulatory cascade that is required to mediate this is largely unknown. However, perturbation of the expression of homeodomain transcription factors, Paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 1 (Pitx1) and Homeobox gene expressed in embryonic stem cells 1 (Hesx1) disparately affects gonadotrophin g...

The application of exogenous neurotrophins (NT) has been widely proposed as a therapeutic strategy for the recovery of regeneration in axotomised CNS neurons. Results from this approach have, however, been disappointing since limited regenerative responses are elicited, we suggest due to limited neurotrophin receptor (NTR) expression. NT exert their trophic effects by signalling through the Trk/p75 receptors. Adequate receptor expression levels must, therefore, be central to t...