Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Phthalates are chemicals used to improve the plasticity of industrial polymers and used in commercial products such as toys, paints, packaging materials, medicals devices and personal care items. Phthalates, endocrine disrupting chemicals, have been documented to cause adverse effects to the human health such as breast cancer in female, reduced uroogenital distance and changed the expression of steroidogenesis and folliculogenessis. In this study, we investigated...

Introduction: Proinsulin is a propeptide of insulin and C-peptide during physiological insulin production and is increased in patients with type 2 diabetes. Increased proinsulin in peripheral blood indicates impairment of cleavage capacity to process insulin within the beta cell. Recently, chemiluminescence assays have been developed that are able to specifically measure uncleaved intact proinsulin in peripheral blood. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the relatio...

It has been proposed that cellular Ca2+ signals activate hormone secretion. In pancreatic β cells, which produce insulin, Ca2+ signals have been known to contribute to insulin secretion. Prior to this study, we confirmed that Calbindin-D9k (CaBP-9k) was responsible for regulation of the distribution of free calcium in the cytoplasm. We also confirmed that insulin-secreting β cells express CaBP-9k, and assumed that CaBP-9k play a role in β c...

Calcium ion is important for physiological functions in all tissues and organs, and is essential for many vital functions. Calcium in lumen is absorbed to cytosol, and Calbindin-D9k binds calcium. It can remove calcium to extracellular through PMCA1 and NCX1. However, in the rat esophagus, the calcium related gene regulations and localizations were not well documented. We evaluated calcium related genes including Calbindin-D9k, PMCA1, and NCX1. Immature rats were daily treated...

Carotid intima–media thickness (IMT) has been shown an independent predictive marker of coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiovascular disease in many studies. We investigated the usefulness of carotid IMT as a screening test for CAD in Korean diabetic patients. We conducted retrospective study and found the type 2 diabetic patients without cardiovascular disease history who underwent carotid ultrasonography (US) and stress echocardiography (SE) from June 2006 to Decemb...

Aims: HDL have many diverse functions. The goal of this study was to determine the differential effect of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) on the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In addition, this study determined the association between the ratio of HDL-C to apoA-I (HA) and incident T2D.Methods: A total of 27 988 subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (18 266 men and 9722 women) aged 21 to 91 years (mean age 43.5 years)...

Objective: The association between albuminuria and peripheral artery disease (PAD) could be confounded by renal function. Albuminuria reflects generalized disruption of endothelial cell function. This study was conducted to examine the association of PAD with low glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and albuminuria in diabetic patients.Methods: A total of 254 diabetic patients were included. We examined the age, sex, duration of diabetes, GFR, urinary albumi...

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most challenging health problems in the world. The degree of prevention or control of complications directly affects patients’ mortality. Therefore, it is crucial to control the risk factors of diabetes. We investigated the prevalence, treatment, and control of diagnosed diabetes in Korean adults from 1998 to 2010.Methods: The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted the Korean National Health and Nutritio...

Objective: To evaluate the effects of free fatty acids (FFAs) on the regulation of plasma and adipose tissue mRNA adiponectin expression in lean and obese subjects.Methods: Seven obese men (31.3±1.1 kg/m2) and eight lean men (21.3±0.4 kg/m2) were studied. Subjects received an Intralipid 20% infusion over 180-min with sodium heparin. Blood sampling and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsy were taken before and after...

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) catalyzes the conversion of heme to carbon monoxide, free iron, and biliverdin, which is then changed into bilirubin. These substances have been recently demonstrated to have antiatherogenic and antioxidative properties. The GT-repeat polymorphism is reported to be an independent risk factor for restenosis after coronary stenting and T (−413). A polymorphism increased the activity of HO-1 promoter, leading to reduce the incidence of ischemic heart...