Endocrine Abstracts

(Will also be presented as a Steroids poster)Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating-hormone (alpha-MSH) is an agonist at the melanocortin-3-receptor (MC3-R) and the MC4-R. It stimulates corticosterone release from rat adrenal glomerulosa cells. The receptor mediating this effect is unidentified since only MC2-R and MC5-R have been reported to be expressed in the adrenal and alpha-MSH is a poor agonist at these receptors. Agrp, an endogenous antagonist at the MC3-R...

Background: The novel peptide prokineticin-2 (PK2) has recently been implicated in the regulation of a number of physiological processes; including regulating gastrointestinal motility, spermatogenesis, neurogenesis and circadian rhythms. PK2 is a cysteine rich protein which mediates its effects via the prokineticin receptors which are expressed in several hypothalamic nuclei known to regulate food intake. We therefore hypothesised that PK2 may be an important endogenous regul...