Endocrine Abstracts

Carcinoid tumours are neuroendocrine tumours that may arise as isolated non-familial cancers or in association with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), which is an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by the combined occurrence of tumours of the parathyroids, the anterior pituitary and the pancreatic islets. The molecular mechanisms underlying carcinoid tumourogenesis have not been fully defined and in order to further characterise these, we undertook 2 approaches...

Background: Sleep loss in the early morning has been shown to reduce secretory activity of the pituitary–gonadal axis in men, but the determinants of this effect are unknown.Objective: To assess the effects of sleep restriction on serum concentrations of LH, testosterone , and prolactin (PRL).Methods: Fifteen young, healthy men were examined in a condition of sleep time restriction to 0245–0700 h for two consecutive night...

Systemic insulin is considered to serve as a major negative feedback signal in the central nervous regulation of food intake. Accordingly, euglycemic infusion of regular human insulin (RI) has been shown to reduce hunger in a dose dependent fashion. Due to its increased lipophility, the long-acting insulin analogue insulin detemir (DI) might cross the blood–brain barrier faster and in higher quantities than RI and exceed stronger anorexigenic effects. To test this hypothe...

Background: Sleep loss is increasingly common in the western world and has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of diabetes mellitus and obesity.Objective: We hypothesised that short term sleep loss results in a diabetogenic metabolic status during carbohydrate challenge at a breakfast buffet.Subjects and methods: Fifteen healthy, normal-weight young men were studied in randomized balanced order on the subsequent morn...

Neural cells are isolated from forebrain of 14.5 days old mouse embryos. In selective conditions these cells cluster forming sphere-like structures – neurospheres (NSCs). NSCs are heterogeneous structures containing only 2–5% of stem cells and progenitors being reportedly capable to transdifferentiate. Initially, aim of this study is to establish optimal culture conditions prior to investigation of transdifferentiation capacity of transplanted NSCs in kidney and adre...