Endocrine Abstracts

Triorganotins, such as tributyltin (TBT), are environmental contaminants commonly found in antifouling paints that are used on the ships and other vessels. Unfortunately, these chemical are also suspected to cause endocrine-disrupting effects in mammals, due in part to their possible transfer through marine food chains and to the consumption of contaminated seafood. The importance of triorganotins as environmental endocrine disruptors in different animal models is well known; ...

Connexins are a proteins critically involved in the formation of gap junction, which connect cells with each other and enable the exchange of small compounds and, besides having a role independently of gap junction formation. At least, in the anterior pituitary two cellular networks have already been identified, one of them is composed of the endocrine inactive folliculo-stellate cells and the second one is the GH-producing somatotroph cell network. It is supposed that gap jun...