Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Increased childhood cancer survival has resulted in an accruing cohort faced with potential infertility. We have previously shown that sperm cryopreservation is acceptable to 70–80% of adolescents and testicular volume, LH and testosterone concentrations positively predict success in ~33% that bank. However, little is known about semen characteristics in relation to age and puberty. Here, we present data on our subcohort of 79 boys who produced a semen sample ...

Cannabinoids are known to exert effects throughout the endocrine system, including in the anterior pituitary. Whilst cannabinoid receptors (CB1 in particular) are expressed in numerous tissues, expression and function of an endocannabinoid system within specific anterior cell types has not been investigated. We have used well-characterised gonadotroph (LβT2 and αT3-1) and somatolactotroph (GH3) cell lines to establish the expression and functional role for cannabinoi...

Introduction: Hydrocortisone therapy in adrenal insufficiency and medical management of Cushing’s syndrome requires accurate monitoring of glucocorticoid status. Currently, this necessitates admitting patients to hospital for serial measurements of serum cortisol. From previous studies in Cushing’s, the goal of medical therapy is a mean (based on five samples) serum cortisol of 150–300 nmol/l, which is known to equate to a normal cortisol production rate. Saliva...

Introduction: There is limited knowledge on the impact of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) on the health and well-being of children and young persons (CYP). We aimed to establish the health status of CYP with CAH across the United Kingdom.Methods: We conducted a national multi-centre prospective study recruiting 107 patients aged 8–18 with 21-hydroxylase deficiency from 14 centres and 83 matched controls. Demographic, clinical, metabolic data, a...

Introduction: Monitoring of hormonal control represents a key part in the management of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). It remains suboptimal and relies on frequent blood tests, which are traumatising in children and young persons (CYP). Recent evidence suggests a crucial role of adrenal-derived 11-oxygenatedC19 androgens in the pathogenesis of CAH. Therefore, we aimed to establish a non-invasive test for monitoring of adrenal-specific androgens in CAH.<p class="abst...