Endocrine Abstracts

Three decades ago wildlife findings of intersex, malformations and sex ratio changes in marine species, birds and mammals could be associated to environmental pollution. Public concern arose as to whether this was also a threat to humans as many countries experience an increase i.e. in the prevalence of infertility and obesity. Humans are continuously exposed to small doses of hundreds of EDCs throughout life and we know very little about their combined effects. Over the past ...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated a high overall prevalence of testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART) in adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), whereas little is known about the prevalence in children. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of TART according to age and genotype.Design: Retrospective study, tertiary University centre.Patients and methods: In 47 male patients (age 2.6–40.3 yea...

Introduction: Phthalates are suspected to influence thyroid function in epidemiologic and experimental animal studies. The aim of the study was to investigate the ability of primary human thyroid cell cultures to metabolise phthalates and a possible concentration-dependent response of phthalates on thyroglobulin (Tg) secretion.Methods: Human thyrocytes obtained from thyroidectomies were cultured to confluent monolayers. These were exposed to DEHP in conc...

Context: Potency of the FSH-pathway varies according to polymorphisms in the promoter of the gene encoding the FSH beta subunit (FSHB −211 G>T, rs10835638) and in the gene encoding the FSH receptor (FSHR 2039 A>G, rs6166). A recent study suggested that carriers of the combination of FSHB GG and FSHR AA had the most reproductive ‘fit’ phenotype (higher serum FSH and a more sensitive FSH receptor). In pre-pubertal girls...