Endocrine Abstracts

The human adrenal gland develops from around 4 weeks gestation and undergoes distinct changes throughout pre- and post-natal life. Defects in these processes can cause adrenal hypoplasia and result in adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal hypoplasia can be: i) secondary to abnormal pituitary function, ACTH synthesis or splicing; ii) the result of ACTH resistance (familial glucocorticoid deficiency; triple A syndrome); or iii) due to a primary defect in adrenal development itself (pri...

Animals that are socially isolated for extended periods show behavioural and physiological changes, including alterations in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) activity. However, there is conflicting data regarding the effects of social isolation on the HPA axis, with studies indicating increased1, decreased2 and unchanged3 corticosterone levels following social isolation. We investigated the effects of social isolation on HPA activity ...

Human thyroid follicular cells in culture synthesise plasminogen activators, both urokinase (uPA) and tissue-type (tPA). The PAs secreted into the culture medium were active (2.5–50 U/ml) and able to mediate the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin. Secreted PA activity (PAA) was markedly increased by epidermal growth factor (EGF) and protein kinase C (PKC) activation with TPA. There was a corresponding increase in uPA and tPA mRNA levels and in uPA and tPA protein secret...

The anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids are mediated in part by inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) activation. Reports that NFkappaB activation within anterior pituitary folliculo-stellate (FS) cells provokes the release of interleukin-6 (IL-6) [1] which acts a paracrine mediator of ACTH release [2], raise the possibility that NFkappaB is a potential target for the negative feedback actions of glucocorticoids upon the hypothalamo-pitu...

Immunoneutralisation and antisense studies have shown that the acute regulatory actions of glucocorticoids (GCs) on the secretion of corticotrophin (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary gland are dependent upon the 37 kDa protein, annexin 1 (Anxa1 [1]), which is localised mainly to the S100-positive folliculo-stellate (FS) cells that lie in close apposition with the endocrine cells. The aim of this study was to examine pituitary function in male and female mice lacking the Anxa1 ...

Our previous studies have shown that the acute regulatory actions of glucocorticoids (GCs) on the secretion of corticotrophin (ACTH) are dependent upon the translocation of a 37 kDa protein, annexin 1 (ANXA1 [1]) from within the cell to the outer cell surface where it is retained by a Ca2+-dependent mechanism (2). The mechanisms by which ANXA1 is exported from pituitary cells in response to a steroid challenge and acts on the endocrine cells to suppress peptide rele...

Perinatal glucocorticoid (GC) treatment accelerates lung maturation but may compromise health in adulthood, possibly via changes in hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (HPA) activity. This study used western blot analysis and a well established in vitro method to investigate the effects of perinatal GC treatment on the expression and function of annexin 1 (ANXA1), a 37kDa protein which mediates facets of GC action in the neuroendocrine and host defence systems. Male rats were treate...

Background: Increased adiposity is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but among overweight individuals clarification is needed of relationships between insulin sensitivity, fat distribution and metabolic health that might contribute to this risk.Methods: During the Heart Disease and Diabetes Research Indicators in a Screened Cohort (HDDRISC) study, 560 employment cohort normoglycaemic (FPG less than 7...

Background: Increased adiposity is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but among overweight individuals clarification is needed of relationships between insulin sensitivity, fat distribution and metabolic health that might contribute to this risk.Methods: During the Heart Disease and Diabetes Research Indicators in a Screened Cohort (HDDRISC) study, 560 employment cohort normoglycaemic (FPG less than 7...

Section 1: Case history: A 30 year-old female patient with a background of symptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism diagnosed in 2008 and a history of two failed neck surgeries, was reviewed in clinic complaining of persistent symptoms of hypercalcaemia. Previous pre-operative neck imaging had failed to localise a parathyroid adenoma and the patient had undergone two neck explorations by an experienced ENT surgeon; one which removed thymic tissue and the other which removed a m...