Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Studies have suggested that PCOS is associated with increased cardiovascular (CVS) risk. The mechanisms that may contribute to increased CVS susceptibility include endothelial dysfunction, vascular inflammation and atherothrombosis.Aim: To compare CVS risk profiles in women with PCOS and healthy age and weight matched controls using novel biochemical and biophysical markers of these pathological processes.Method: Fo...

Patients with obesity are relatively Growth Hormone (GH) deficient. GH has potent effects on adipocyte biology, stimulating lipolysis but also promoting pre-adipocyte proliferation. Conversely, we have shown that cortisol inhibits pre-adipocyte proliferation and enhances differentiation. Furthermore, GH, acting through IGF-1, inhibits 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1) which converts the inactive glucocorticoid, cortisone (E) to active cortisol (F) in ad...

Objective. The aims of our study were to utilise a combination of high fidelity phenotyping, microarray gene expression profiling and conserved synteny mapping between rodent and human genomes to identify genetic determinants underlying human hypertension.Methods. We used the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) and a congenic strain (SP.WKYGla2c*) produced by introgressing a quantitative trait locus responsible for blood pressure regulation on rat chromosom...