Endocrine Abstracts

The peer review process is a critical step in whether a manuscript will be accepted for publication. In this talk we will present the editorial processes that happen behind the scenes under the label ‘under review’, how reviewers are selected, how authors can facilitate the peer review process, and how recent attempts have tried to undermine the classic peer review system....

Thyroid hormone (TH) is long known for its profound effects on metabolism. Novel studies have revealed that these effects are not restricted to the cellular and organ level, and that TH also affects metabolism by altering the autonomic nervous system via TH receptor α1. Mice expressing a mutant R384C TH receptor α1 display a central sympathetic hyperactivation of their brown adipose tissue, which causes severe hypermetabolism and resistance to high-fat diet-induced o...

Thyroid hormone is long known for its profound effect on body temperature regulation. Patients suffering from hyperthyroidism display elevated body temperature and are sensitive to heat, while hypothyroid patients are cold sensitive. The precise regulation of body temperature by thyroid hormone, however, has been incompletely understood. In our recent studies, we have studied the thermogenic effects of the hormone in a mouse model in detail. We observed that the body temperatu...

A normal thyroid status is crucial for normal tissue and organ functioning, including temperature homeostasis. The tissue-specific actions of TH on body temperature regulation and thermogenesis are largely modulated via thyroid hormone receptor TRα. Consequently, mice expressing a mutant TRα display bradycardia and a reduced body temperature at 22°C ambient temperature due to excessive heat loss via the tail. To test whether this peripheral heat loss is the sole...

Thyroid hormone (TH) plays an important role for brain development. As the fetal thyroid gland only starts providing hormone at the end of pregnancy, the developing brain crucially depends on maternal thyroid hormone in early developmental periods. In previous studies, we have observed that in particular the central control of cardiovascular functions critically depends on maternal thyroid hormone for proper development; however, the precise window when the hormone is benefici...

Thyroid hormones play an essential role for the embryonal development of the cardiovascular system including its central control mechanisms. Particularly the latter critically depends on maternal thyroid hormone, as the embryo doesn’t produce own thyroid hormone until late in pregnancy. However, the precise window of action has remained undetermined, and it is therefore unclear whether alterations in maternal thyroid hormone directly affect the offspring’s cardiac fu...

A normal thyroid status is crucial for correct tissue and organ function, including temperature homeostasis. The tissue-specific actions of thyroid hormone on body temperature regulation in humans and rodents are largely modulated via the nuclear thyroid hormone receptor TRα1. Consequently, mice expressing a mutant TRα1R384C display a reduced core body temperature at 22°C caused by excessive heat loss via the tail. Surprisingly, the hypothermic phenotype of TR&#...

Introduction: So far, only two representatives of thyronamines, namely 3-iodothyronamine (3-T1AM) and the iodine–free thyronamine (T0AM), have been detected in vivo. While intensive research is done on the (patho-) physiological function of 3-T1AM, the physiological role of T0AM is poorly studied. Conflicting data have been reported for the acute cardiac effects of T0AM. This project therefore determined whet...

The ability of thyroid hormones to regulate body temperature is well established. While the active hormone T3 can act peripherally to induce thermogenesis in fat and muscle, it also acts centrally in the brain to increase body temperature through the sympathetic nervous system. Most remarkably, recent studies show that T3 treatment in mice causes an elevated body temperature even at 10°C, far below thermoneutrality, suggesting that the T3 effect constitutes pyrexia rather...

Thyroid hormones (TH) are important regulators of human metabolism and development, which modulate expression of target genes via nuclear thyroid hormone receptors (TRs). Different isoforms of these classical TRs including TRβ isoforms TRβ1 and TRβ2 as well as TRα1 were shown to be functional TH-responsive transcription factors and have been extensively studied. In contrast, the cellular function of TRα2, an alternative splice variant of TRα1, is ...