Endocrine Abstracts

Hypopituitarism is a recognised complication of pituitary and hypothalamic pathology. It can also be a consequence, less commonly, of traumatic brain injury. It has never been described in patients following recovery from a cardiac arrest. We present a case history of hypopituitarism following successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation for a ventricular tachycardia (VT) cardiac arrest. A 51 year old patient with known prolonged QT (Romano ward) syndrome and chronic obstructive a...

Introduction: In the UK alone, diabetes affects nearly 4 million people and an additional 13.6 million people are estimated to be at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Diabetes is associated with vascular complications which path the development of cardiovascular diseases such as strokes and heart attacks. Previous studies have shown various pathways in which hyperglycaemia leads to endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance. However, current reports of <e...

Introduction: Overweight and obesity is a worldwide chronic disease affecting 2 billion adults and millions of children. In diet-induced obesity (DIO), current treatments are not always effective or suitable for all patients due to the complexity of obesity and its associated health complications. Recently, the potential of developing weight loss therapy by targeting the gut microbiota has been raised. Previously, we have shown that mice overexpressing insulin-like growth fact...

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a spectrum of progressive liver diseases driven in part by macrophages, occurring in the absence of excessive alcohol consumption that ranges from simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH), ultimately progressing to fibrosis/cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. NAFLD is associated with insulin resistance and confers an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Pre-menopausal women are protected against...

Introduction: Accumulating evidence suggests a role for IGF1 in insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. IGF1 enhances glucose uptake and nitric oxide (NO) production, via similar mechanisms to insulin. Previously we have reported a mouse model with global heterozygous knockout of the IGF1 receptor (IGF1RKO) that has enhanced insulin sensitivity and increased nitric oxide (NO) production in the vasculature.Methods: To investigate this further we us...

Background: Insulin resistance and ageing are risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Insulin signalling in macrophages affects their inflammatory responses and foam cell formation capacity, yet the mechanisms linking these remain unclear. Recent evidence has emerged linking macrophage lipid metabolism and inflammatory response such as an interferon-cholesterol pathway flux axis. Insulin has been shown to directly regulate chol...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common co-morbidity in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HF-REF), and is associated with adverse prognosis. Subgroup analyses of randomized controlled trials suggest patients with DM benefit prognostically from beta-adrenoreceptor blockers (BB) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). However, it remains unclear whether escalating doses of these age...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common co-morbidity in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HF-REF), and is associated with adverse prognosis. Subgroup analyses of randomized controlled trials suggest patients with DM benefit prognostically from beta-adrenoreceptor blockers (BB) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). However, it remains unclear whether escalating doses of these age...

Authors 1-4 contributed equally to this work.Background: Insulin resistance is the central defining feature of type 2 diabetes and increases with age. People with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), Alzheimer’s disease and arthritis. Macrophages are phagocytotic leukocytes which play a central role in the development of type 2 diabetes and the chronic inflammatory di...

Endothelial dysfunction is a key step in the initiation of atherosclerosis, resulting from a decrease in bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO). IGF-1 may play a part in regulation of NO production via the PI3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway. We have investigated whether disturbances of this pathway occur in dietary-induced obesity.Obesity was induced in mice fed a high fat diet for 20 weeks (n=12), compared to chow fed controls, with an age-related increas...