Endocrine Abstracts

Background/aims: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women, being characterized by ovarian hyperandrogenism attributed to intrinsic overproduction by theca cells (TCs). Although previous reports pointed a higher stability and transcription of CYP17mRNA (Wickenheisser JK et al. 2006)1, few have examined (and none has quantified) P450c17 protein expression in TCs from PCOS ovaries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to qua...

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women. It is characterized by hyperandrogenism, which results primarily from excess androgen production by ovarian theca cells (TCs). Obesity contributes to androgen excess in PCOS and previous studies in vitro using bovine TCs have shown that adiponectin (production of which is inhibited in PCOS) is a repressor of P450c17 activity. However, little is known about expression of adiponec...