Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Current evidence suggests that testosterone acts as a vasodilator in several vascular beds. This may have implications for men who are androgen deficient, in whom vascular reactivity may be impaired. We have studied vascular responses in vitro in femoral arteries from testicular feminised mice (Tfm), which lack a functional androgen receptor and are consequently androgen resistant and have reduced circulating levels of testosterone. Methods: Femoral arteries from m...

Reputedly, thyroid hormones make thinner and change the body composition. The aim of this randomized and prospective study was the assessment of the effect of levothyroxine suppressive therapy on body composition in women with benign thyroid nodule.Method: Thirty seven euthyroid and non obese women (18–60 years old) with benign thyroid nodule (fine needle cytology and calcitonin measurement) were randomized into 2 equal groups. The first group recei...

Introduction: Heart failure is characterised by an up-regulation of neurohoromones, and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are well-established diagnostic biomarkers with substancial prognostic value. Adrenomedullin is a vasoactive peptide and a potential biomarker of vascular injury in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) The aims of the present study were to investigate whether mid-regional pro adrenomedullin (MR-proADM) is predictive ...

Patients with glucocorticoid (GC) excess, Cushing’s syndrome, develop a classical phenotype characterized by insulin resistance and central obesity. Whilst it is clear that GCs are essential for adipocyte differentiation, their impact upon many of the processes that regulate lipid accumulation has not been explored in detail. De novo lipogenesis involves carboxylation of acetyl CoA to malonyl-CoA by acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC), which is subsequently converted to p...

Research question: What are the differences in foetal size in early pregnancy between GDM and control.Methods: Serial foetal biometry was performed for GDM women and controls at 18–20 weeks and 28–32 weeks. At each visit, abdominal and head circumference (AC) & (HC), femur length (FL) and abdominal wall thickness (AWT) was measured along with collection of maternal data.Results: women with GDM and 184 controls had com...

Substance P (SP), neurokinin A and neurokinin B (NKB) are vasoactive tachykinins, believed to exert their effects by release from nerve endings to activate three neurokinin receptors. We have found the major source of NKB (TAC3) expression to be the placenta which results in elevated maternal blood levels in pre-eclampsia. Placental NKB appears to increase blood flow in the placenta and uterus but causes pressor effects in the peripheral circulation. Whilst the placenta, is de...

Evidence supports a protective role for testosterone in men with coronary artery disease (CAD) and in the regulation of cytokine function. This study examined the relationship between serum levels of inflammatory cytokines and testosterone in men with CAD. Serum was collected from 69 men (59+1 years) having >75% occlusion of 1 (n=20), 2 (n=18) or 3 (n=31) coronary arteries. Levels of total testosterone (TT), bioavailable testosterone (BT), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFa...

Background: Melatonin as strong antioxidant and free radical scavenger can play important, protective role in disease in which oxidative damage is a significant component e.g.: in coronary heart disease, neoplastic disease, neurodegenerative disease. The aim of our study was determination of the effect of melatonin supplementation on malonyldialdehyde (MDA) concentration and activity of: superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) in patients...

Central obesity and insulin resistance are more prevalent in women with PCOS, affecting both normal weight and obese subjects. The metabolic effects of insulin are partially dependent on the amount of lean mass and insulin resistance seems to selectively affect the metabolic, but not the mitogenic, actions of insulin. Therefore, this age-matched case-control study assessed total and segmental lean muscle mass in classic or ovulatory polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients an...

Prostaglandin (PG) E2 acts through its receptors (EP1–4) to modulate myometrial contractions and cervical ripening at term gestation. Although uterine PGE2 biosynthesis is augmented with labour progression (Durn et al. 2008); functional EP1–4 receptors have yet to be determined. To characterise these receptors in gravid human myometrium, in vitro responses to selective and novel EP agonists were investigated b...