Endocrine Abstracts

The family of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases (CaMK) are major effectors of calcium binding proteins in virtually all systems. Recently, CaMKs have been implicated in regulating pituitary and hypothalamic gene transcription to control the expression of gonadotrophin hormones and adrenocorticotrophin in the pituitary, and as a pivotal protein in the satiety pathway. Despite these observations, the spatial and temporal expression of the CaMKs is poorly documented an...

Particulate guanylyl cyclases are expressed in all endocrine organs and serve as specific receptors of the natriuretic peptides ANP, BNP and CNP. Guanylyl cyclase-B (GC-B/Npr2) receptors specifically mediate the biological effects of CNP in its target tissues. Targeted disruption of either CNP or GC-B results in pituitary growth hormone deficiency and dwarfism as a result of achondroplasia. Despite this, molecular regulation of GC-B expression is poorly elucidated. Therefore, ...

In target tissues, CNP acts via the cell surface guanylyl cyclase B (GC-B) receptor to stimulate cGMP accumulation. Transgenic mice studies deleting either CNP or the GC-B receptor suggest a role for CNP in regulating bone formation and pituitary growth hormone secretion. Our previous studies have implicated a role for CNP in inhibiting calcium transients in alphaT3-1 pituitary gonadotroph cells; however the biological consequence of cGMP accumulation remains unclear. Therefor...

CNP, the third member of the mammalian natriuretic peptide family, exerts the majority of its biological effects via the guanylyl cyclase B (GC-B) receptor, resulting in accumulation of intracellular cGMP. Previous studies reveal numerous inhibitory effects of natriuretic peptides on the MAPK family in bone, neuronal and cardiovascular tissues. However, we recently reported that CNP stimulates ERK, p38MAPK and JNK phosphorylation in pituitary GH3 somatotrophs. As CNP is known ...

The nuclear receptors, NR5A1 (SF-1), NR5A2 (LRH-1) and NR0B1 (DAX-1), are key regulators of gene expression and development in endocrine tissues. NR5A1 regulates endocrine development and function, and is an important regulator of gene expression in pituitary gonadotrophs. In contrast, little is known regarding the role of NR5A2 in pituitary function. Using a range of anterior pituitary-derived cell lines and primary rat pituitaries, we have investigated the expression and act...

Introduction: Pheochromocytomas (PHEOs) and paragangliomas (PGLs) are rare neuroendocrine tumors arising from chromaffin cells within adrenal medulla and autonomic paragranglia respectively. Recent evidences show that nearly one-third patients harbour germline mutation, namely in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), REarranged during Transfection (RET), neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF 1) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) complex genes. However, the tumor morphology arising in various syndrom...

Introduction: In the modern day busy clinical practice the communication between patient and care giver is at minimal level. The patients feel apprehensive when advised about the surgical intervention. In such situation they feel the need of detail information from the care givers.Story telling is a tool which can be used for this problem. We intended to study the efficacy of storytelling technique on patients undergoing Hemithyroidectomy for benign cytology.<p class="abst...

Introduction: A persistently elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) following parathyroidectomy is usually associated with vitamin D deficiency. We have previously demonstrated this to occur in ~60% of post-operative patients. We have examined the effect of routine vitamin D replacement pre-operatively on the proportion of patients with persistently elevated PTH post-operatively.Methods: Data was collated retrospectively from our parathyroid database, includ...

Mammalian pituitary gland development is well established on a molecular and morphological level. In developmental biology the use of chick and zebrafish models is common but despite chicken pituitary gland development being characterised in 1952 these models have only recently been regularly employed in pituitary studies. The third member of the natriuretic peptide family, C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), has been investigated in rodent embryos but little is known about its ...

Despite being identified almost two decades ago, the biological roles for C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) have remained poorly elucidated. Both CNP and GC-B are highly conserved from flies and fish to humans. Recent investigations involving the disruption of the CNP gene (Nppc) or that of its GC-B receptor (Npr2) implicate a role for CNP and GC-B in bone formation and growth. Intriguingly, CNP and GC-B knock-out mouse models also exhibited pituitary growth hormone deficiency....