Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Using a deuterated tracer (D4-cortisol) to measure cortisol regeneration from cortisone in vivo we have quantified tissue-specific 11βHSD1 activity in health and disease, and acute regulation eg by insulin. These studies relied on tracer enrichment in the total plasma cortisol pool, assuming rapid equilibration between free and protein-bound pools. Slower equilibration would result in underestimation of enzyme activity, and has implications for the co...

Tissue cortisol levels are amplified by the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1). In mice, transgenic overexpression of 11β-HSD1 causes the metabolic syndrome, consequently 11β-HSD1 inhibitors are a promising therapeutic target. However, determining the importance of 11β-HSD1 in humans has proved more complicated, in part due to difficulty quantifying in vivo activity. We hypothesized that cortisol regeneration by 11β-H...