Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Growth hormone (GH) has long been known to have neuroprotective properties. Hypophysectomy (Hx) completely abolishes circulating endocrine GH. Also neuronal (non-erythrocyte) haemoglobin beta chain (Hbb) in the hippocampus decreases following Hx while GH infusions and injections robustly increase the levels approximately 2-4-fold in male rat hippocampus. Recently it has been revealed that Hbb protein is present in mitochondria in the mammalian brain. Current investi...

Context and objective: GH and IGF1 both have neuroprotective and regenerative effects in experimental stroke. Our aim was to investigate whether the endogenous serum-IGF1 (s-IGF1) levels were correlated to recovery of functional independence in stroke patients.Subjects and methods: The analysis of s-IGF1 was performed in 400 patients of both sexes, aged 18–69 years old, and 40 controls previously included in the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic...

Growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) is a neuropeptide mainly synthesised in the hypothalamus, known to exert a stimulatory effect on the synthesis and release of growth hormone (GH) from the pituitary via the activation of specific receptors. New data indicate that GHRH is also produced in both extrahypothalamic brain areas and in peripheral tissues. GHRH-receptor splice variants (SVs) have been found in several peripheral normal and neoplastic human tissues and mediate ef...