Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Accumulating evidence has shown that not only maternal health during pregnancy, but also the paternal metabolic status at the time of conception may have an impact on the subsequent health of the offspring. Cholestatic liver diseases are metabolic conditions characterised by increased circulating serum bile acid and lipid levels. In this study we hypothesised that paternal cholestasis alters disease susceptibility in the offspring.Methods: ...

Introduction: Accumulating evidence has shown that not only maternal health during pregnancy, but also the paternal metabolic status at the time of conception have an impact on the subsequent health of the offspring. Cholestatic liver diseases are metabolic conditions characterised by increased circulating serum bile acid and lipid levels. A previous study has shown that long-term cholestasis results in destruction of the blood–testis barrier and germ cell apoptosis. We h...

Introduction: Pregnancy is associated with maternal metabolic adaptations (increased cholesterol and triglycerides) that are essential for the development and maintenance of the fetus. Physiological and behavioural changes are driven via biological clocks entrained by the light–dark/rest–activity cycles that define feeding time and body temperature. A number of oscillators are present in the peripheral organs that are synchronised by cues from the suprachiasmatic nuc...

Introduction: Normal pregnancy is characterised by dyslipidaemia which progresses with gestational age as a consequence of the growing energy demands of the mother and developing fetus. Specifically, there is an increase in the maternal plasma cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipid concentrations.Liver X receptor (Lxr) is a nuclear receptor which promotes cholesterol clearance and de novo lipogenesis.Hypothesis: We hyp...

Introduction: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy-specific liver disorder which is associated with higher incidence of gallstone disease. ICP symptoms are usually presented in the third trimester of gestation and their severity advances in parallel with the increase in serum sulphated progesterone metabolites (P4-S) in the mother. Liver X receptor α (LXRα) actively participates in the regulation of lipid metabolism functioning as a cholesterol ...

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common liver disease in children and young people. NAFLD can progress to cirrhosis and is associated with cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality, often requiring liver transplant. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) expends energy for thermogenesis when activated by pharmacological agents, e.g. β3-adrenergic receptor agonists, or environmental signals such as cold exposure. We hypothesise that intermittent cold...

Background: The 16-year-old children of mothers with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy demonstrate increased adiposity, dyslipidaemia, and males have raised fasting insulin. Similarly, the offspring of cholestatic pregnant mice have impaired glucose tolerance and dyslipidaemia when challenged with a Western diet. Female offspring have a more marked phenotype than males. Bile influences microbial growth, thus intestinal bile acid exposure in pregnancy may contribute to meta...

Alterations in maternal metabolism can programme disease in the offspring. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is a liver disease of pregnancy that presents with increased maternal serum bile acids (BA) and dyslipidaemia. We aimed to investigate whether cholestatic pregnancy affects the subsequent health of the offspring. We developed a cholestatic mouse model by supplementation of a normal chow (NC) diet with 0.5% cholic acid during pregnancy. 18 weeks old female and male o...

Epidemiological studies have identified the intrauterine environment as a major contributor to increased rates of metabolic disease in adults, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a common liver disease of pregnancy that affects 0.5–2% pregnant women and is characterised by increased bile acid (BA) levels in the maternal serum. The influence of ICP on the metabolic health of offspring is unknown.<p class="...