Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The placenta interchanges nutrients, oxygen and waste between mother and fetus, acts as a gate-keeper to protect the fetus and creates an optimal endocrine environment to maintain the pregnancy. Placental insufficiency underpins common pregnancy complications (e.g. intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth). Perturbed expression of molecular transporter proteins in the placental syncytiotrophoblast will affect fetal exposure to harmful drugs/xenobiotics such...

Hypospadias is among the most common congenital malformations with a mean prevalence of 19.9 per 10,000 live births in Europe. The cause of many cases of hypospadias remains unclear but likely results from a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Although rodent studies have provided great insights into external genitalia morphogenesis, extrapolations to the human genitals is challenging given significant anatomic and morphogenetic differences. With t...

Introduction: Angiopoietin-like proteins (ANGPTLs) are a family of 8 glycoproteins with pleiotropic effects in metabolism, angiogenesis, inflammation and cancer. ANGPTL3, 4 and 8 play major roles in regulating lipid levels, via inhibition of lipoprotein lipase. Increased serum ANGPTL3, 4, 8 levels are associated with obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and fatty liver. Furthermore, cord blood ANGPTL8 is higher than in maternal serum, suggesting a role in fetal development an...