Endocrine Abstracts

Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be a major cause of vascular complications in diabetes. Our research shows that obestatin, a 23-aminoacid amidated peptide recently identified as a product of the ghrelin gene, inhibited high glucose-induced apoptosis in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC). Exposure to high glucose concentration (30 mM) for 72 h caused a significant increase in apoptosis, as evaluated by Hoechst staining, but co-treatment of rat obestatin (from...

Background: Exogenous follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) administration in male idiopathic infertility showed the most convincing rationale in the face of a clinical efficacy below expectations. It was calculated that 10 to 18 men have to be treated to achieve one pregnancy.Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of FSH administration in male idiopathic infertility in a clinical setting.Methods: A retrospective real-world study was...

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the most frequent sexual disorder. Although psychological ED (pED) is the most frequent form, vascular ED (vED) is associated with 1.25 times greater risk of developing major cardiovascular diseases. Alongside cardiovascular aspect, the evaluation of patients’ health, measured by the comorbidities number, in relation to the ED aetiology has never been investigated so far.Objectives: To explore the potential r...

RFamides are a family of peptides containing arginine-phenylalanine-amide at their C terminus. A novel 43-amino acid RFamide, named QRFP43, and a shorter endogenous peptide 26RFa, were discovered and identified as ligands of the G protein-coupled receptor GPR103. Different studies have shown that RFamides, such as neuropeptide FF and QRFP43 and 26RFa, play a role in food intake, thermogenesis and energy homeostasis. Here, we investigated the effects of QRFP peptides on surviva...

Obestatin (Ob) is a peptide recently identified as a product of the ghrelin gene. It was claimed to bind to the orphan receptor GPR39, but this finding is still a matter of debate. Ob exerts peripheral effects, for example, it promotes cell survival and has antiapoptotic actions in different cell lines. In addition, Ob has central effects, such as inhibition of thirst, modulation of anxiety, sleep and mnemonic functions. Mnemonic processes involve neurogenesis; in particular, ...

Introduction: Hippocampus is a key area in the brain and influences the neuroendocrine functions, especially the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis that is mainly regulated by corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), vasopressin (ADH) and glucocorticoid (GC). This feed-back action is mediated by both glucocorticoid (GRs) and mineralocorticoid (MRs) receptors. GRs are distributed throughout the brain, but mostly in hypothalamic neurons, while the MRs highest expr...

Background and aims: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exert an immunosuppressive effect on immune system and can abrogate in vitro the pro-inflammatory Th1 response to islet antigen GAD in type 1 diabetes by impairing the production of IFN-gamma. The mechanism may involve paracrine factors. Microvesicles (MVs) released from MSCs may account for this paracrine mechanism through a horizontal transfer of mRNA and microRNA. In the present study we evaluated whether MSC-derived...

Obestatin is a 23-amino acid amidated peptide that is encoded by the ghrelin gene and was therefore presumed to have regulatory effects on pituitary. However, the limited set of studies performed hitherto suggests that obestatin has no major effect on hormone secretion, in vivo or in vitro, from rodent pituitary, whereas no comparable data is still available on primates. Here, primary pituitary cell cultures from a non-human primate (baboon; Papio anubis) served ...