Endocrine Abstracts

Various proinflammatory cytokines have been demonstrated to be involved in insulin resistance and other obesity related diseases. Preadipocytes and adipocytes are likely to modulate inflammatory and immune processes by intrinsic mechanisms. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) which are – together with CD14 – involved in the innate immunity and are able to recognize microbial components. Microbial components and immunosuppressive drugs modulate the cytokine expression. We addr...

The causal relationship between obesity and heart failure is broadly acknowledged; however, the pathophysiological mechanisms involved remain unclear. Besides hemodynamic changes, an alternative mechanism of cardiomyocytes apoptosis secondary to intracellular lipid accumulation has been proposed. However, this seems to be valid only for severe obesity but may not explain the increase in heart failure risk with mild-to-moderate overweight. Since adipocytes secrete a wide variet...

The mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone is secreted by the adrenal cortex. It plays a major role in maintaining water and electrolyte balance and hence blood pressure homeostasis by the kidneys. The aldosterone synthesizing zona glomerulosa of the adrenal cortex is a highly vascularized region. This allows a complex and articulated interaction between the steroidogenic cells and the vascular endothelial cells regulating the hormonal output.In this stud...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulphate ester DHEAS are neurosteroids with potential effects on neurogenesis, neuronal survival and neuronal stem cells proliferation. DHEA is produced by the inner adrenocortical zone, which is in direct contact to the adrenomedullary chromaffin. Unlike the closely related sympathetic neurons, chromaffin cells are able to proliferate throughout the life span. The aim of the present study was to examine in vitro the effect of DHEA ...