Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease characterized by increased glucose levels, mostly either due to insulin deficiency (type 1 DM) or a decreasing ability of insulin receptor binding (type 2 DM) or both. Biomarker measurements such as fasting glucose and haemoglobin A1c are vital to detect and monitor DM. In addition to these parameters and antibody testing, insulin determination has been used for classifying different types of DM. However, the disadvantage of in...

Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by biochemical and clinical androgen excess and disturbed ovarian function and is associated with disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism. Isoflavones are phytoestrogens exerting endocrine effects on human hormone and metabolic signaling and may influence symptom penetrance in PCOS. We investigated whether women with PCOS and healthy controls have alterations in their capacity to metabolize hormonally active dietar...

Sarcopenia is a degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality, and strength. It increases the risk of falls and fractures, is associated with cardiac and respiratory disease and cognitive impairment and leads to mobility disorders. It decreases quality of life, leads to loss of independence, placement in long-term care and finally death. A variety of indices and parameters can be used to define sarcopenia. According to literature, matrix-GLA-protein (MGP) is associated wi...

The proline rich and Gla domain genes PRRG1-4 encode for short transmembrane proteins. PRRG proteins contain a Gla domain with glutamic acid residues which are gamma-carboxylated in a vitamin-K-depend manner. In a previous study, we were able to show a decrease in PRRG1 gene expression during intima thickening in atherosclerosis. In this study, we investigated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the vitamin-K-dependent protein PRRG1 with cardiovascular...

Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5–20% of women of reproductive age worldwide and is associated with disorders of glucose metabolism. Hormone and metabolic signalling may be influenced by phytoestrogens, such as isoflavones. Their endocrine effects may modify symptom penetrance in PCOS.We investigated, whether women with PCOS and healthy controls differ in their capacity to metabolize dietary isoflavones and whether this capacity...

Matrix–GLA–protein ( MGP), independent of its posttranslational modification(s), has been associated with bone parameters and cardiovascular risk in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We investigated whether uncarboxylated, dephosphorylated MGP (uc–dp MGP), total MGP or both are associated with anthropometric and cardiovascular parameters such as carotid to femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), intima–media thickness (IMT) and relat...

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients are at high risk for vascular complications. Some of them have even a higher risk during metformin therapy, as we have recently shown by associations of polymorphisms in the Oct1 gene with a therapy-dependent increased risk of cardiovascular death. In this study, we investigated whether Oct1 gene variants were associated with cardiovascular characteristics such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), echocardiographic parameters and intima/media thickness...

Matrix-GLA-protein (MGP) was repeatedly associated with inflammation markers during the last decade. It is expressed in leucocytes and is a regulator of immune response. Due to posttranslational modification, there are 4 forms. The form responsible for immunomodulation is still unknown. Since the predicted active form - carboxylated, phosphorylated MGP - is not directly associated with immunomodulation, we aimed to investigate the association of dp-ucMGP (dephosphorylated, unc...

Background: Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is well known for its association with ovarian follicular count and ovarian reserve in general as well as for its recruitment of primordial follicles in women. With an explicit decrease in menopause, it is mainly used for clinical questions from in-vitro-fertilisation to polycystic ovary syndrome. Interestingly, AMH levels in men are quite high during lifetime, but there is only few data about its relevance and potential effects in...

Background: C-peptide consists of 31 amino acids, synthesized in the beta cells of the pancreas and co-secreted along with insulin. Hence, serum C-peptide may be the preferred diagnostic biomarker for evaluating beta cell function compared to insulin. The urinary C-peptide to creatinine ratio (UCPCR) recently gained attention as a non-invasive biomarker for evaluating and monitoring metabolic risk. In this study, we aimed to characterize guiding values of UCPCR in healthy indi...