Endocrine Abstracts

The main functions of the two pituitary gonadotrophic hormones, luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and of the placental choriongonadotropin (hCG), are well characterized today. In clinical medicine, gonadotrophin measurements in peripheral serum form a valuable tool in the diagnosis of disorders in sexual development and fertility, and gonadotrophins are the mainstay in infertility treatments. A great deal of the new information about physiology a...

The recent discovery of human mutations in genes encoding gonadotrophins and their receptors has greatly expanded our knowledge about the pituitary-gonadal function. Further information has been obtained from the numerous gene-modified animal models where the normal pituitary-gonadal function has been disrupted either by transgenic or gene disruption techniques. These studies have unravelled, for instance, the specific functions of the two gonadotropins, FSH and LH, in the abs...

Ilpo Huhtaniemi, Department of Physiology, University of Turku, Finland and Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London, UK AbstractIlpo Huhtaniemi received his MD (1972) and PhD (1974) degrees at University of Helsinki, Finland, did his postdoctoral training in the US (UCSF and NIH, Bethesda), and has been a visiting scientist in Germany (University of Heidelberg) ...

Testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) are the two most important sex steroids in men and women, respectively, and their accurate determination in serum is of crucial importance in assessing gonadal function both in clinical management and research. The limitations of serum T and E2 measurements using non-extraction platform immunoassays (IA) are widely recognized. Switching to more specific mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods has been advocated but directly comparative data on ...

Rapid activation of diverse signal transduction pathways is thought to play an integral role in the cellular responses to many steroid hormones, including progesterone. This sex steroid is essential for normal reproduction in nearly all species. The recent cloning of a G-protein coupled receptor with the properties of a membrane progestin receptor (mPR) in fish and the subsequent identification of three mammalian homologues (mPR-alpha, -beta, and -gamma) raised the possibility...

BACKGROUND: Male steroidal contraceptive regimens achieve azoospermia in 60-90% of Caucasians. The mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity in response are not clear. The aim of this retrospective study was to examine a number of polymorphisms in genes involved in androgen metabolism and action, in azoospermic responders (n=73) and oligozoospermic non-responders (n=44) from previous contraceptive trials. METHODS: Local Ethical Committee approval was obtained. DNA was extracted...

We have earlier shown a reciprocal feed-forward amplification link between expression of transcription factor GATA-4 and luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) during adrenocortical tumorigenesis, and also that chronically elevated LH levels may induce LHR in mice, but not GATA-4. Hereby, our goal was to analyze the consequences of ectopically expressed GATA-4 on murine adrenal cortex in the presence and absence of gonadectomy (GDX) induced elevated LH levels. For this purpose, we...

Introduction: Aging men with low testosterone concentration may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In some studies, but not all, low serum testosterone concentration has been associated with an atherogenic serum lipid profile.Methods: Year 2000 all the men aged 40–70 years (N=28,622) in the city of Turku, Finland, received a questionnaire on andropausal symptoms. Those men who reported high andropausal symptoms were tested for s...

Objective: The role of thyroid hormones in the control of erectile functioning has been only marginally investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between thyroid and erectile function in a general population sample (European Male Aging study, EMAS study) and in patients seeking medical care for sexual dysfunction (University of Florence Study, UNIFI study).Participants: Two different cohorts of subjects were evaluated. The fir...