Endocrine Abstracts

Background: During fetal development, the heart switches substrate preference from glucose to fatty acids, such that in the adult heart, 50–70% of ATP is derived from fatty acid oxidation. What triggers this switch is currently unclear. In vivo, the late gestation rise in glucocorticoid levels is essential for structural and functional maturation of the fetal heart. Glucocorticoid treatment of fetal cardiomyocytes induces express...

Background: During fetal development, the heart switches substrate preference from glucose to fatty acids, such that in the adult heart, 50–70% of ATP is derived from fatty acid oxidation. What triggers this switch is currently unclear. In vivo, the late gestation rise in glucocorticoid levels is essential for structural and functional maturation of the fetal heart. Glucocorticoid treatment of fetal cardiomyocytes induces express...

Background: During ageing, total testosterone (TT) declines and SHBG increases, resulting in a greater decline of free testosterone (FT) compared to TT. However, guidelines suggest using TT to diagnose androgen deficiency and to reserve FT only for men with borderline TT. We investigated if isolated low FT or isolated low TT was associated with androgen-related endpoints in healthy men.Methods: 3369 community-dwelling men, aged 40–79, were included....

Introduction: Primary hypogonadism (PHG, testosterone <10.5 nmol/l and LH >9.5 U/l) without a recognisable cause affects ~2% of community-dwelling middle-aged and older men. We sought to identify the clinical significance of, and risk factors for, this apparently age-related hypogonadal state.Methods/design: The European Male Ageing Study (EMAS) is a prospective observational cohort survey of 3.369 community-dwelling men aged 40–79 in eight ...