Endocrine Abstracts

In patients with autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD), exogenous glucocorticoid (GC) therapy is an imperfect substitute for physiological GC secretion; patients on long-term steroid replacement have increased morbidity, reduced life expectancy and poorer quality of life. Recent early-phase studieshave demonstrated that some endogenous steroidogenic function – Residual Adrenal Function (RAF) - is maintained at the point of diagnosis in a proportion of AAD patients; this...

Despite lifelong glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid replacement, there is excess morbidity and mortality associated with autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD). Adrenal cortical cells undergo continuous self-renewal from a population of subcapsular progenitor or stem cells, under the influence of ACTH. We aimed to determine if synthetic ACTH analogue could revive adrenal steroidogenic function and ameliorate AAD.We performed an open-label trial of syn...

Kisspeptin is a 54 amino acid peptide, encoded by the anti-metastasis gene KiSS-1, that activates the G-protein-coupled receptor, GPR54. The kisspeptin/GPR54 system is critical to normal reproductive development. KiSS-1 gene expression is increased in the human placenta in normal and molar pregnancies. Circulating kisspeptin is dramatically increased in normal pregnancy but levels in gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) have not previously been reported. The...