Endocrine Abstracts

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is key in energy homeostasis. Catecholamines are critically involved in the regulation of BAT-thermogenesis, yet current research has focussed on noradrenaline and adrenaline. Some evidence suggests a role of dopamine (DA) in BAT-thermogenesis but the intracellular mechanisms have not been addressed. We applied our extensively characterised murine brown adipocyte cell line to address these questions.D1-like and D2-like receptor...

Introduction: Obesity associated with the risks of metabolic syndrome is a rising problem in Western societies but shows a wide depot- and sex-specific variation. A better understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying this different depot- and sex-specific role is crucial to identify potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets. MicroRNAs are recently recognized important players in adipogenesis and fat metabolism. They post-transcriptionally regulate diverse biologica...

Selective enhancement of glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue has been shown to induce characteristic features of the metabolic syndrome. Adipocyte-derived factors provide a link between altered adipose tissue mass and function and cardiovascular disease. However, key mechanisms controlling these pathophysiological alterations in adipose tissue are poorly understood. Recently, both, the glucocorticoid (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), have been shown to mediate ...

Introduction: Thyroid hormones (TH) are essential regulators of metabolism and increase energy expenditure (EE). Mitochondria-rich brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialised in thermogenesis and significantly contributes to EE. BAT contains essential components of TH action but TH transporters like MCT8 have not been characterised so far. As direct effects on O2 consumption and mitochondrial action have not been investigated before we tested MCT8 expression and direct effects o...

Objective: Abnormal mitochondria are well known in oxyphilic thyroid tumors but recent data also confirm profound mitochondrial alterations in other thyroid carcinomas. These changes are linked to the aggressiveness of the tumors. Our group recently demonstrated in an in vivo model, that inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling suppressed the invasive and metastatic behaviour of thyroid cancer cells. Here, we evaluated whether a modulation of PI3K sig...