Endocrine Abstracts

Background: During fetal development, the heart switches substrate preference from glucose to fatty acids, such that in the adult heart, 50–70% of ATP is derived from fatty acid oxidation. What triggers this switch is currently unclear. In vivo, the late gestation rise in glucocorticoid levels is essential for structural and functional maturation of the fetal heart. Glucocorticoid treatment of fetal cardiomyocytes induces express...

Background: During fetal development, the heart switches substrate preference from glucose to fatty acids, such that in the adult heart, 50–70% of ATP is derived from fatty acid oxidation. What triggers this switch is currently unclear. In vivo, the late gestation rise in glucocorticoid levels is essential for structural and functional maturation of the fetal heart. Glucocorticoid treatment of fetal cardiomyocytes induces express...

The global prevalence of obesity continues to rise, creating a growing need for new effective medicines. Selective targeting of visceral obesity (fat around the internal organs) would be particularly advantageous because it carries a greater risk for cardiometabolic diseases. The ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase (ENPP) enzyme family participates in several pathological conditions including diabetes (ENPP1, and ENPP2, also known as autotaxin) and vascular dysfunction (ENPP3-4). O...

Endometriosis is a chronic incurable hormone dependent condition characterized by growth of endometrial tissue in sites outside the uterus: 30–40% of women with endometriosis have sub/infertility however the underlying cause is unknown. We have previously demonstrated that steroid-induced differentiation of endometrial stromal cells (hESC) (decidualisation) is associated with increased expression of metabolic genes that are thought to be essential to support the implantin...

Endometriosis is a chronic oestrogen-dependent incurable inflammatory disorder, defined by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterine cavity that affects 6–10% of women of reproductive age. It is associated with debilitating pelvic pain and subfertility with a significant impact on quality of life and estimated annual costs to the UK of £11.7 billion. Recent findings from our laboratory have shown that there is a shift in cell metabolism from mitocho...

The late gestation increase in glucocorticoid action promotes the structural and functional maturation of the fetal heart. Metabolic maturation of cardiomyocytes involves a switch from glucose utilization as a fuel source to fatty acid (FA) oxidation. In fetal cardiomyocytes, glucocorticoids induce expression of PGC1a (a master regulator of mitochondrial capacity), lipin1 and KLF15 (genes involved in FA oxidation). We hypothesized that glucocorticoids promote the metabolic swi...

Background: The late gestational surge in glucocorticoids is vital for the maturation of fetal organs in preparation for birth and survival during the neonatal period. Metabolic maturation of cardiomyocytes involves a switch in fuel substrate from glucose utilization to fatty acid (FA) oxidation. In fetal cardiomyocytes, glucocorticoids induce expression of Ppargc1a (encoding PGC1a, a master regulator of mitochondrial capacity). We hypothesized that glucocorticoids pr...

The recent discovery of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, which generates heat to maintain body temperature in a cold environment, offers an exciting new strategy to treat obesity and metabolic disease, but our knowledge of human BAT activation is limited. To identify novel pathways regulating human BAT, we undertook RNA sequencing of human brown and white adipocytes. The gene SLC6A4 (encoding the serotonin transporter SERT) was one of the most highly differ...