Endocrine Abstracts

The Mineralocorticoid Receptor (MR, NR3C2) mediates sodium-retaining action of aldosterone. Recently, we have shown that the physiological sodium loss observed in newborns in their first days of life is due to a low renal MR expression. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown to date. In the adult renal KC3AC1 cell line, we demonstrated that variations in extracellular tonicity, which exist in the nephron, modulate MR expression by posttranscriptio...

The 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11βHSD) isozymes are well-known regulators of glucocorticoid hormone metabolism: 11βHSD2, mostly expressed in the distal nephron, converts cortisol [F] into cortisone [E] in humans or corticosterone into 11-dehydrocorticosterone in rodents (11-dehydro derivatives being inactive compounds), and 11βHSD1, ubiquitously expressed but predominantly in the liver, catalyzes the opposite reaction. Under pathophysiological conditi...