Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Maternal thyroid hormone during early pregnancy is important for proper fetal growth and development. Thyroid hormone receptors are widely expressed in placental tissue. Interestingly, thyroid dysfunction and suboptimal placental function have both been associated with pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, premature delivery and fetal growth restriction. First, we studied the association of the maternal thyroid and placental function and second, we inve...

Background: Childhood obesity is an increasing health problem, affecting over 40 million children aged 0–5 years worldwide. It is associated with premature onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Pathologically elevated cortisol is known to induce obesity and cardio-metabolic complications, suggesting cortisol is implicated in the onset of obesity. Indeed, recent pilot-studies showed an increase in hair cortisol concentrations in obese adults and adoles...

Introduction: Adequate thyroid hormone availability during early life is crucial for normal child growth and development. Fetal growth in utero heavily depends on angiogenesis. Placental growth factor (PlGF) is a proangiogenic factor sharing high homology with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) whereas soluble FMS-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt1) is a potent antagonist of VEGF and PlGF signaling. Since the thyroid is a highly vascularized organ, we hypothesized t...