Endocrine Abstracts

There is evidence from human studies that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may regulate acquired immunity by promoting a shift towards a T helper type 1 (Th1) phenotype and in innate immunity by suppression of inflammation. Interestingly, circulating levels of DHEA/DHEA-S are significantly reduced in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosis and are also negatively correlated with age.Annexin 1 (ANXA1) is a glucocorticoid-induced p...

Adrenomedullin (AM) was discovered in the adrenal gland in 1993 by Kitamura and colleagues. Since then it has been found in many other tissues including in skin. We know from our recent studies that AM regulates (in vitro) the secretion of cytokines and growth factors, known to be involved in tissue repair, from endothelial and skin cells. The present study was designed to establish whether AM levels in skin were increased following wounding in vivo.A we...

Previous data from this laboratory has shown that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a direct stimulant of adrenal cortisol secretion. The present study was designed to determine the mechanism of this effect.The human adrenocortical H295R cell line was used in these studies. Cells were incubated in the presence of varying concentrations of LPS (10 to 1000ng/ml) for periods up to 24 hours. PGE2 and cortisol were measured by RIA. Indomethacin and the specific COX...

Adrenomedullin and pro-adrenomedullin N terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) are multi-functional peptides that are cleaved from a precursor peptide named proadrenomedullin. It has been well documented that adrenomedullin has an effect on cell growth and differentiation in many cell types. However, the effects of PAMP on cell growth still remain to be elucidated.Using the human endothelial cell line (HMEC-1) and human adrenocortical cell line (H295R), cells were p...

Cutaneous injury triggers a complex series of biological processes which lead to tissue repair and comprise the mechanism termed wound healing. Various growth factors and cytokines are involved in the multiple stages of wound healing. Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is secreted by skin fibroblasts and acts locally to induce cell proliferation. During wound healing KGF's role is as a re-epithelialising agent working in conjunction with pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interl...

Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide directly stimulates Cortisol Secretion by Human Adrenal CellsK. Vakharia, D Renshaw, J.P. HinsonDepartment of Endocrinology, Division of General and Developmental Medicine, Barts and the London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK.Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a potent vasorelaxant peptide recently identified in extracts of pheochromocytoma. Proadrenomedullin, a pre...

Previous studies demonstrated that the N-terminal peptide of annexin A1 (AnxA1) (peptide Ac2-26) can mimic the anti-inflammatory actions of the full-length protein in various systems. In the current study, we report the effectiveness of the peptide Ac2-26 as an anti-inflammatory agent in a model of human SGBS adipocytes. We have previously demonstrated that plasma AnxA1 protein is significantly inversely correlated with BMI, body fat level and waist to hip ratio. We have also ...

Two members of the melanocortin (MC) receptor family are abundantly expressed in the adrenal cortex, namely MC2R and MC5R. MC2R binds only ACTH and is known as the ACTH receptor, the role of MC5R however is still under investigation. It is known that alpha-MSH stimulates aldosterone secretion by the rat adrenal cortex, by an MC2R-independent mechanism, although the receptor involved has not been identified. The experiments were designed to investigate the role of MC5R in the a...

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate is a steroid product of the adrenal gland, which circulates in micromolar concentrations, but whose function is unclear. Epidemiological studies have suggested that high circulating DHEAS levels may be protective against cardiovascular disease. The present study was designed to determine whether DHEAS altered vascular cell growth using the human microvascular endothelial cell line HMEC.HMECs were grown in MCDB131 medium co...