Endocrine Abstracts

The activity of certain hypothalamic neuronal populations is altered by changes in glucose. in-vitro studies have identified several glucose-sensitive neuronal populations in hypothalamic regions controlling energy homeostasis. Subsets of orexigenic arcuate nucleus Neuropeptide Y (NPY)-releasing neurones are known to be glucose responsive. These neurones may allow glucose to influence appetite. Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) is a neurotransmitter ab...

Background: Osteoporosis leads to significant morbidity and disability through an increased susceptibility to fracture. Post-menopausal females are a high-risk group. A fracture liaison service model has been proposed as a method to maximise initiation of treatment for secondary prevention following a fragility fracture.Aim: To compare practice in two fracture units to guidelines contained in the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Technolo...

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has been used to express GFP in a variety of tissues. AAV has a tropism for neurones and we have been using AAV-GFP to determine the anatomical localisation of gene transfer after injection into the hypothalami of Wistar rats. The long term aim is to use this viral vector as a tool for investigating the hypothalamic control of appetite, energy expenditure and pituitary function.Male Wistar rats were anaesthetised and injecte...

Background: The hypothalamus is a critical area of the brain involved in the regulation of appetite. Cerebellin1 (Cbln1) is a highly conserved 16 amino acid neuropeptide. High levels of Cbln1 mRNA expression are found in specific hypothalamic areas involved in appetite regulation.Aim: To examine the effects of Cbln1 on food intake in rodents.Methods: 1. Ad libitum fed rats were injected intracerebroventricularly (ICV) with Cbln1 (1...

Agouti-related protein (AgRP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) are co-localised in hypothalamic arcuate nucleus neurons that have been implicated in the regulation of energy balance. Both AgRP and NPY stimulate food intake when administered into the third ventricle and are up-regulated in states of negative energy balance e.g. fasting. AgRP/NPY neurones are thought to play a role in the integration of information received from circulating satiety factors and signals of energy store st...

Relaxin-3 (INSL-7) is a recently discovered member of the insulin superfamily, a group of structurally related hormones whose precursors have a domain arrangement similar to that of pro-insulin. Relaxin-3 mRNA is expressed in the nucleus incertus of the brainstem which has projections to the hypothalamus, an area important in appetite regulation. Relaxin-3 binds with high affinity to the recently discovered previously orphan G-protein-coupled receptor, GPCR135, which is expres...

(This poster is based on OC25)...

Hypothalamic Cocaine- and Amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is regulated by circulating glucocorticoids. In adrenalectomised rodents, CART expression is reduced in the arcuate nucleus. However, CART also modulates the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Acute intracerebroventricular injection of CART peptide significantly increases plasma ACTH and corticosterone but the long-term actions of CART are unknown. The aim of these studies was to determine the effect of l...

Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) was originally isolated from rat brain but CART is also synthesized and stored in the anterior pituitary. The localisation and factors regulating pituitary CART synthesis are largely unknown.Using a specific assay for the pituitary form of CART, CART(55-102), CART-immunoreactivity was detectable in the medium of the corticotroph cell line, AtT-20 (1.73 ± 0.54 fmols per millilitre per 24h) but not in control medium....

Cocaine and amphetamine regulated-transcript (CART) is highly expressed in the hypothalamus and was originally reported to be an endogenous satiety peptide. Intracerebroventricular injection of CART can result in motor abnormalities and recent studies have demonstrated increased food intake after intra-nuclear CART administration. To help clarify the situation CART was over-expressed in the hypothalamus using recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV-CART). Recombinant adeno-as...