Endocrine Abstracts

Both of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) and estrogen receptor (ER) contribute to the development of thyroid cancer. Previously, the activation of ERα was found to promote the proliferation of thyroid cancer cells, whereas activation of either ERβ or PPARγ resulted in apoptosis of thyroid cancer cells. Furthermore, a transactivation between ER and PPARγ was reported in estrogen-responsive malignancy, such as breast cancer. Howev...

Serum retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), a new adipocytokine, was reported to increase insulin resistance. RBP4 was significantly elevated in type 2 diabetic patients with microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria as compared with normoalbuminuric patients. Some adipocytokines have been found to induce cell injury. Therefore, we investigated whether RBP4 could modulate JNK, p38MAPK, ERK and TGF-β1 expression in HEK293 cells by using transfection of p38MAPK and JNK small interf...

Pituitary tumor transforming gene 1 (PTTG1) is expressed in most tumors. However, whether thyroid hormone (T3) and its receptors (TRs) regulate PTTG1 in human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) remains unclear. Previous cDNA microarrays revealed PTTG1 is down-regulated by T3/TR. This study investigated the significance of PTTG1 regulation by T3 in HCC cells. The PTTG1 mRNA and protein expression were repressed by T3 in HepG2-TR cells ov...

Aims: There is a lack of literature about mental and emotional dysfunction in patients with acromegaly or other pituitary tumours although impaired quality of life is well recognised. We examined whether adult patients with acromegaly experience a lower quality of life (QoL) than adult patients with other pituitary tumours and whether any difference in QoL is attributable to the patient’s perceived body image.Methods: Medical records were used to id...

Besides playing a role in energy homeostasis, orexins have been reported to have divergent effects on physiological behaviour, cardiovascular regulation, glucocorticoid release, as well as playing a key role in the aetiopathogenesis of narcolepsy. Recent studies using rodent models suggest orexins may also be involved in the regulation of thermogenesis. For example, mice lacking the prepro-orexin gene are significantly hypophagic but have normal body weight suggesting differen...

Wnt proteins are morphogens that are involved in morphogenesis, differentiation and stem cell biology in a variety of tissues. In the adrenal cortex, WNT4 is expressed at a higher level in the zona glomerulosa (ZG) and mice deficient in WNT4 have a defect in this zone. In this laboratory we confirmed that WNT4 is expressed at a higher level in the human ZG and showed that this is accompanied by higher expression of a potential antagonist, dickkopf-3 (DKK3). To investigate the ...

Orexins (A & B) are derived from a common 130 amino acid precursor peptide, prepro-orexin, by proteolytic cleavage, and orchestrate their actions by binding and activating two types of G-protein coupled receptors, orexin-1 receptor (OX1R) and orexin-2 receptor (OX2R). The OX1R preferentially binds orexin-A, whilst OX2R binds both orexin-A and ?B, with similar affinity. Besides playing a role in the regulation of feeding and energy homeostasis, orexins appear to increase se...

Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and its related product perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) are anthropogenic fluorosurfactants widely used in consumer products. In general, studies in rodents have supported the conception that PFOS perturbs testis function, such as by inducing Sertoli cell injury. It remains to be demonstrated if similar effects could be reproduced in humans. We sought to examine its effects on human spermatogenesis by using a human Sertoli cell primary culture syst...

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a newly identified syndrome characterized by high serum IgG4 levels and increased IgG4-positive plasma cells infiltration. IgG4-related thyroiditis (IgG4-RT) was first prescribed based on the immunohistochemistry in 2009. Some of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), Graves’ disease (GD) and Riedel thyroiditis were reported to be classified as IgG4-RT based on high serum IgG4 level or histopathological findings. However, the pre...

IntroductionMultiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN-1) is a hereditary condition with neoplastic lesions in multiple endocrine organs, which most frequently involves pituitary, parathyroid gland, and pancreas.Case reportA 53 y/o male visited endocrine clinic with the chief complaint of foreneck swelling for 1 month. He had history of renal stone for years. He had normal fT4 (1.13 ng/dl, reference 0.93–1...