Endocrine Abstracts

The heart not only has a mechanical function of pumping blood through vessels but also acts as an endocrine gland. In its endocrine function, the heart releases atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a hormone of a large family of natriuretic peptides. ANP is secreted from cardiac atria as an inactive preprohormone. In post-translational modification, 25-amino acid signal sequence is cleaved from preprohormone to produce proANP of 126-amino acid, which is the major form of ANP stor...

Hypertension is associated with vascular changes characterized by endothelial dysfunction, increased vascular contraction, and arterial remodelling. Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells, which constitute bulk of vascular wall, are critically involved in these processes through their highly plastic and dynamic features and ability to undergo phenotypic differentiation. Stimulation of VSM cells by pro-hypertensive neurohumoral stimuli such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine, and ...

Puberty, one segment of a larger developmental continuum in humans, is characterized by major transformations in body such as highest growth, sexual development and distribution of fat in different body regions. Leptin is regarded as an essential adipokine that regulates intake of food, expenditure of energy and body fat mass. It is well known that alterations in nutritional states markedly influence growth hormone (GH) secretion, which in turn regulates linear growth, muscle ...

The maturation of hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis causes the onset of puberty, which stimulates the development of secondary sex characteristics and changes in the size and composition of the body. Furthermore, the size of the thyroid gland increases and its function also changes as an adaptation to the requirements of the transformation of child to an adult. It has also been reported that the thyroid hormones including thyroxin (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) have a f...

Hypertension or elevated arterial blood pressure (BP) is the most common cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The arterial BP is regulated by renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), whereas dysfunctional RAAS may lead to development of hypertension and associated CVDs. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) secreted by parathyroid glands regulates RAAS by directly stimulating aldosterone synthesis in zona glomerulosa cells, which leads to development of hypertension. Conversely, R...

Diabetes mellitus type-II (DM-2) is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose levels due to insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. DM-2 often leads to hypertension, a prolonged condition of elevated blood pressure (BP). Both hypertension and diabetes have a pathological role in causing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). While renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) regulates arterial BP, any pathology in RAAS system may lead to hypertension and rel...

The short children have lower social competence and show more social problems than children with normal stature. The physical appearance has consequences in terms of how short stature children are judged and treated by others as they can be teased or bullied due to short stature, which may affect future prospects of finding a job or a spouse. These psychosocial stressors are risk factors for the psychological adjustment for children of short stature. Stress responses are activ...