Endocrine Abstracts

Liver fatty acid-binding protein (LFABP) is a 14 kDa cytoplasmatic protein found in hepatocytes and enterocytes of the small intestine. It binds long chain fatty acids (LCFA) and other hydrophobic ligands and is thought to play an important role in intracellular LCFA transport.We investigated the regulation of LFABP gene expression by thyroid hormone (T3) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) ligand clofibric acid.<p class=...

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is key in energy homeostasis. Catecholamines are critically involved in the regulation of BAT-thermogenesis, yet current research has focussed on noradrenaline and adrenaline. Some evidence suggests a role of dopamine (DA) in BAT-thermogenesis but the intracellular mechanisms have not been addressed. We applied our extensively characterised murine brown adipocyte cell line to address these questions.D1-like and D2-like receptor...

The increasing prevalence of obesity is paralleled by related metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Extensive efforts across disciplines are made to reveal underlying mechanisms and develop effective therapies against obesity and its comorbidities. Since PET–CT studies provided evidence for functional brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, this specialized thermogenic compartment of adipocytes is in the focus of current r...

Objective: Disturbed levels of thyroid hormones are associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, including memory impairments. Even short-term hyperthyroidism may affect properties of the human brain. To investigate the influence of thyroid hormones, we conducted functional neuroimaging. The aim of this study was to evaluate functional changes in working memory performance.Materials and Methods: Twenty healthy, male, right-handed subjects (age range 21&#1...

Introduction: Thyroid hormones (TH) are essential regulators of metabolism and increase energy expenditure (EE). Mitochondria-rich brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialised in thermogenesis and significantly contributes to EE. BAT contains essential components of TH action but TH transporters like MCT8 have not been characterised so far. As direct effects on O2 consumption and mitochondrial action have not been investigated before we tested MCT8 expression and direct effects o...

Objective: Abnormal mitochondria are well known in oxyphilic thyroid tumors but recent data also confirm profound mitochondrial alterations in other thyroid carcinomas. These changes are linked to the aggressiveness of the tumors. Our group recently demonstrated in an in vivo model, that inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling suppressed the invasive and metastatic behaviour of thyroid cancer cells. Here, we evaluated whether a modulation of PI3K sig...