Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hyperprolactinaemia may be associated with weight gain and obesity, suggesting that prolactin may modulate body composition and weight. Treatment that normalises prolactin levels using dopamine agonists frequently leads to weight loss and provides further evidence for the association.Case: A 28-year-old South Asian male with a body mass index of 27.2 kg/m2 was referred to a weight management clinic with a five year history of wei...

Introduction: Central obesity is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with omental adipose tissue (AT) particularly involved in such risk. Additionally, obesity can cause low-level gut-derived endotoxemia, which may drive metabolic dysfunction in AT through mitochondrial damage and reduced BRITE (brown-in-white) adipocytes. Bariatric surgery reduces obesity and may prevent such dysfunction. This study investigated whether endotoxin: 1) impairs mitocho...

A 24-year-old Pakistani woman presented one day after returning from a 6-week holiday in Pakistan with a 3-day history of generalised weakness, difficulty in walking and left flank pain. She was known to have mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). Clinically she was pyrexial and had generalised muscular weakness (power 3/5), and hypotonia. Biochemically, she was found to have hypokalaemia (1.8 mmol/l), raised serum urea (8.1 mmol/l), and creatinine (160 μmol/l), high ESR...

Background: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and associated mitochondrial dysfunction contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Studies show broccoli can reduce inflammation in cancer and may therefore mitigate inflammation-induced cellular disruption that precedes insulin resistance in human adipocytes. Therefore these studies investigated the impact of freeze-dried broccoli extracts (BE) on ER stress and mitochondrial dy...

Background/objectives: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a potent hormone known to reduce glycaemia and improve insulin resistance with anti-obesity effects. Although mainly secreted in the liver, adipose tissue is considered an important target for its function. Whilst FGF21 has been shown to be expressed in murine adipose tissue, studies in human adipose tissue are lacking. Therefore our aim was to examine the expression of FGF21, FGF21 receptor-1 (FGFR1), βKlotho ...

Replacement with mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) or poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) reduces inflammation in the pre-diabetic subjects but the benefits are unclear in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Our aim was to investigate whether saturated fatty acids (SFA), MUFA and PUFA produce a similar adipocyte inflammatory response, which may explain the rationale for maintained systemic inflammation noted in subjects with T2DM. The differentiated human preadipo...

Joint UK guideline (2006) recommends that routine testing of thyroid function (TFT) in patients admitted acutely to hospital is not warranted unless specific clinical indications exist. Despite this, TFT is frequently requested during acute medical admission. In our previous audit in 2002, during a 1 month period from 18th September, 458 subjects were admitted to medical assessment unit (MAU) and 183 (40%) were offered TFT. 39 (29%) results were beyond the laboratory reference...

Joint UK guideline (2006) recommends that routine testing of thyroid function (TFT) in patients admitted acutely to hospital is not warranted unless specific clinical indications exist. Despite this, TFT is frequently requested during acute medical admission. In our previous audit in 2002, during a 1 month period from 18th September, 458 subjects were admitted to medical assessment unit (MAU) and 183 (40%) were offered TFT. 39 (29%) results were beyond the laboratory reference...

Background: Metabolic endotoxaemia (raised bacterial endotoxin in serum after high-fat feeding) has been shown to reduce insulin sensitivity in humans through systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. Mitochondria represent the main source of cellular reactive oxygen species and mutations in mitochondrial DNA often result in a diabetic phenotype. However, the direct cellular impact of endotoxin on mitochondrial respiration and DNA integrity, particularly within the context o...

Background: Small frequent meals are often recommended for weight loss, with supporting evidence often provided from studies in diabetes. Dietary meal content is also relevant, as high fat meals cause systemic inflammation via gut derived bacteria, endotoxin. As such, repeated meals may exacerbate this. In contrast, dietary induced thermogenesis, related to meal size, may reduce with small frequent meals.Aim: Therefore, the aim of this study was to compa...