Endocrine Abstracts

For many animals anticipation of future changes in environmental conditions is a critical adaptation for survival. Seasonal changes in reproductive activity, body weight and adiposity, metabolism and coat condition are examples of such adaptive physiology. Clearly each of these involves neuroendocrine control. The environmental cue that triggers these changes is photoperiod, which is translated into the hormonal signal, melatonin, a product of the pineal gland. A considerable ...

Expression of the mt1 melatonin receptor has been described in both the pars tuberalis (PT) and pars distalis (PD) of the rat pituitary gland. Expression of mt1 mRNA and iodomelatonin (IMEL) binding sites is high in the neonate PD but rapidly declines over the initial weeks of postnatal life. In contrast, both mt1 mRNA and IMEL binding sites are preserved in the PT through to adulthood, leading to a marked tissue-specific expression profile.To identify ...

Background: Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) is now becoming the standard of care for children and young people with diabetes (CYPD). Due to a lack of validated education programmes, we created ‘The CGM Academy’ delivering evidence-based structured education. The results of the first 50 CYPD graduating from the academy demonstrated statistically significant improvement in time in range (TIR, 3.9-10.0 mmol/l) by 8.3% (P<0.001) and HbA1c by 3.8 mmol/mol...

The relationship between serum TSH and thyroid autoantibodies is frequently used to classify thyroid disease both overt and subclinical. Further debate has centred on the validity of the cutoff point for serum TSH elevation (generally between 4-5 mU/l) which it has been suggested is inappropriately high. The significance of the presence of thyroid autoantibodies (hereafter termed antibody positivity) in extrathyroidal disease is unclear but an increased prevalence has been rep...