Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The association between thyroid function and mood disorders has long been recognized but little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Thyroid dysfunction often leads to the development of mental diseases and in patients with affective disorders, 1–4% suffers from hypothyroidism and 4–40% show signs of subclinical hypothyroidism. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of hypothyroidism on metabolic processes in the brai...

Hypersensitivity of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is considered to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of depression. Interestingly, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) – an incretin hormone involved in the maintenance of glucose homeostasis in the periphery is known to activate HPA axis. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether prenatal stress (an animal model of depression) may influence levels of GLP-1 and GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R)...

Introduction: Recently, the immune hypothesis of depression has gained a new dimension because of inflammasomes. NLRP3 inflammasome is a protein complex and its activation leads to stimulation of the enzyme caspase 1 responsible for generation of active form of pro-inflammatory cytokines: IL-1 β and IL-18. Recently postulated ‘inflammasome theory of depression’ assumes that depression is based on a disturbance of the mechanisms regulating NLRP3 complexes and unc...