Endocrine Abstracts

Diet induced obesity is associated with an increased relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular complications. In addition to these co-morbidity factors there is increasing evidence to suggest that obese insulin resistant individuals show impaired negative feedback control of the HPA axis in response to stress. Here we investigate HPA axis response to an acute stress following high fat feeding in rats.Male ...

Hypoglycaemia is an almost unavoidable consequence of iatrogenic insulin therapy in type 1 diabetes. Recurrent hypoglycaemia (RH) results in suppression of normal counter-regulatory hormonal and physiological responses (CRR) to future episodes increasing the risk of severe hypoglycaemia. The mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon remain unclear but may reflect changes in critical hypothalamic glucose sensing neurons (GSN). We set out to indirectly test the hypothesis that ...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of dementia world wide. Accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) has been implicated as a causal factor of AD. Beta secretase (BACE1) catalyses the rate limiting step in the production Aβ and has been postulated as a potential therapeutic target for AD treatment. Environmental factors, including psychological stress, accelerate the development of dementia and AD. This study examined hypothalamic–pituitary...

Vascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in people who have diabetes. Hyperglycaemia is associated with increased transcriptional activity of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) in the vasculature. NFAT activation enhances expression of pro-inflammatory mediators including osteopontin, COX2 and IL6, implicated in the development of vascular disease. This study investigated the therapeutic potential of NFAT inhibition on the progression of microvascul...

Obesity and the metabolic syndrome are chronic inflammatory states that are now understood to be involved in the development type 2 Diabetes. Hypothalamic cytokine signalling is thought to influence neuroendocrine networks critical to the dynamic maintenance of glucose homeostasis. Interleukin 6 (IL6) is a cytokine that displays tissue-specificity and is instrumental in the mounting of the acute phase response, as well as in the subsequent resolving and adaptive phase. IL6 is ...