Endocrine Abstracts

Endogenous glucocorticoids help to mobilize energy to prepare for daily activity and to deal with stressors, e.g. by catabolic effects on muscle and stimulation of the release of glucose and fat from the liver. Chronic overexposure to glucocorticoids has strong deleterious effects, in medical glucocorticoid and in Cushing’s disease. It is less clear to what extent glucocorticoid signalling may be used as a therapeutic target in the much more frequent consequences of the m...

Introduction: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used anti-inflammatory medications that cause many metabolic side effects. Long-term treatment with GCs causes obesity and induces insulin resistance in many metabolic tissues, including adipose tissue and muscle. Factors secreted by adipose tissue, so-called adipokines, including leptin and adiponectin, also regulate the glucose-insulin axis. Obesity increases circulating leptin but decreases adiponectin levels. Despite several s...

Cortisol conversion to 20β-dihydrocortisol (20β-DHF) has been reported in many tissues and cells, including skin, muscle, thrombocytes and fibroblasts, although the enzyme responsible is poorly characterised. We have attributed 20β-DHF generation to carbonyl reductase 1 and shown increased activity of this pathway in adipose tissue in obesity in humans, horses and mice. This study addressed the hypothesis that 20β-DHF activates gl...

Cortisol conversion to 20β-dihydrocortisol (20β-DHF) has been reported in many tissues and cells, including skin, muscle, thrombocytes and fibroblasts, although the enzyme responsible is poorly characterised. We have attributed 20β-DHF generation to carbonyl reductase 1 and shown increased activity of this pathway in adipose tissue in obesity in humans, horses and mice. This study addressed the hypothesis that 20β-DHF activates gl...

Background: Patients with long-term remission of Cushing’s disease (CD) demonstrate residual psychological complaints. At present, it is not known how previous exposure to hypercortisolism affects psychological functioning in the long-term. In foregoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies, abnormalities of brain structure and resting-state connectivity were demonstrated in patients with long-term remission of CD. However, no data are available on functional alteratio...