Endocrine Abstracts

Within the adrenal gland, chromaffin cells and their progenitors are exposed to a wide variety of growth factors and hormones, including adrenal androgens such as DHEA. The DHEA producing-zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex is in close proximity to the neural crest-derived catecholamine-producing chromaffin cells of the medulla, enabling strong paracrine interactions. In vivo studies in humans revealed that congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase ...

One important risk factor for the development of arterial hypertension is abdominal obesity. Aldosterone, secreted by adrenocortical cells, promotes sodium and water retention and by that regulates blood pressure homeostasis. Increased serum aldosterone levels have been linked to the development of obesity hypertension. Therefore, identifying the link between obesity and increased aldosterone secretion is of high importance for the management of obesity hypertension.<p cla...

The mechanisms that lead to tumor formation of and aldosterone secretion by zona glomerulosa cells in primary aldosteronism are not known. Recently, endothelial cell-derived factors have been characterized that control the release of aldosterone by adrenocortical cells. In addition, we started to characterize the regulation of CITED2, a CBP/p300 interacting transactivator with ED-rich tail 2. Earlier, it was shown in mice that absence of CITED2 leads to adrenal agenesis. Since...

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...