Endocrine Abstracts

Glucocorticoids act directly on pancreatic islets suppressing insulin secretion from the beta cells through a genomic mechanism of slow onset. We present here data on immediate actions of dexamethasone on two models of insulin secretion: RINm5F and INS-1 beta cell lines. Under normal glucose concentrations, dexamethasone rapidly (within minutes) decreased insulin secretion about 30%. Under hypoglycaemic conditions (glucose reduced to 50% for 1 hour) dexamethasone increased ins...

The transcription factor and proto-oncogene GLI1 is the terminal mediator of the Hedgehog signalling pathway which is involved in developmental processes, stem cell maintenance and cell proliferation. Although the pathway is mainly active during embryogenesis and tissue repair, it is frequently reactivated in several cancer types.Based on these findings we investigated the potential role of GLI1 in the pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas. GLI1 expression ...

We present data on open reading frame 62 encoded on human chromosome 6 (C6orf62), a gene whose protein expression and function has not been described to date. The gene product of C6orf62 was designated pituitary associated regulator of hormone secretion (PARS).Initial gene expression screens showed that PARS transcription is differentially regulated in secreting and non-secreting pituitary adenomas, as well as in normal pituitary tissue. Inspired ...

Glucocorticoid feed-back in pituitary corticotrophs represses POMC transcription and ACTH release. Serum and glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (Sgk1) has been identified as an immediate early target of glucocorticoids in many tissues, however its expression and function in corticotrophs are unknown.We show here that Sgk1 is present in the human pituitary gland at both mRNA and protein levels. Double-immunohistochemistry revealed that Sgk1 is expressed in d...

Insulinomas are thought to be the result of reduced ß-cell death and hyperproliferation of this specific and highly differentiated cell type. Specific growth- factors are responsible for inducing ß- cell replication and might therefore be involved in insulinoma formation. Pluripotent islet progenitor cells are thought to be located at pancreatic ducts, which can give rise to novel islets as well as exocrine pancreas formation. TGFß1 signalling disruption has bee...

Objective: Establishment of rodent in vitro cell systems for the extension of the functional data about the recently cloned neuroendocrine marker secretagogin.Methods: 1. DNA-cloning; 2. Antibody generation; 3. Immunoblotting and Immunohistochemistry; 4. Cell-transfection; 5. Luciferase Reporter Assays; 6. ELISA.Results: 1. We characterized the rat homologue of human secretagogin (rat secretagogin) and demonstrated the homol...