Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology with a prevalence of 10–20/100 000 individuals and affects mainly young adults. Neurological involvement occurs in about 5% of the cases and it can affect the hypothalamic–pituitary axis. In this case, the most common endocrine manifestations are hyperprolactinemia and diabetes insipidus.Case report: A 44-year-old male patient complaining of not feeling well and d...

Context: Alterations in white adipose tissue (WAT) function, including changes in extracellular matrix (ECM) composition, play an important role in conditions of both weight gain and loss.Objective: We set out to identify novel genes regulated by obesity and cancer cachexia in human scWAT with potential roles for adipocyte function and/or tissue remodelling.Design Candidate genes were selected by overlapping previously published gl...

Androgen excess is a key feature of the polycystic ovary syndrome; however the molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis largely remain elusive. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) is the most abundant steroid in the human circulation but only unconjugated dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) can be converted to active androgens. Conversely, conversion of DHEA to its sulfate ester DHEAS by DHEA sulfotransferase, SULT2A1, diminishes the DHEA pool available for androgen gener...

In the perinatal period iodine deficiency results in growth and mental impairment in fetus and newborns. However, there are limited data on iodine metabolism in mother and infants during this critical period.Objective: To assess the changes in urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in mothers and neonates.Methods: From July 2010 to October 2011, 155 pregnant women(31.1±2.1 years) without thyroid disease and their term infants (38....

The generation of a knockout mouse lacking all POMC-derived peptides by Yaswen et al provided further support for the importance of the melanocortin system in regulating body weight. POMC-null mice have a greater food intake than wild-type littermates on both low fat and high fat diets, resulting in increased body weight. In addition to obesity, these mice have altered pigmentation and defective adrenal development.The hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPT) in the...

Human securin, also known as pituitary tumor transforming gene, plays a critical role during cell division. Ubiquitination of securin during the metaphase to anaphase transition releases its binding partner separase, which cleaves the cohesins holding sister chromatids together. We recently demonstrated reduced securin expression in human fetal versus adult brain, and dissected its role in affecting the proliferation of human embryonal CNS precursor NTERA-2 (NT-2) cells. We ha...

We estimated androgen status at 111 female patients (pts) with HH before and after hormonal therapy (HT) by estadiol 2 mg+dydrogesterone 10 mg in sequence manner not <12 months. Median age of pts was 28 y.o., mean duration of HH 6.2 year, isolated HH n=56 group 1, HH as a part of hypopituitarism n=55 group 2, 45 healthy women of the same age were included in control group. Total T, SHBG and DHEA-S levels were measured, free T levels were calculated using stan...

Pregnancy is characterised by profound changes in maternal physiology. For instance, there are changes in the metabolic, cardiovascular, immune and renal systems of the mother which enable her to support fetal nutrient supply and growth. These changes are signalled in part by the production of protein hormones by the placenta (Napso et al., 2018). Failures in maternal adaptation and placental function lead to pregnancy complications such as abnormal birth weight and g...

Prostate cancer is currently treated with hormonal therapies, which aim to block the production and/or action of androgens. However, tumours eventually progress to castration-resistant prostate cancer and there is a great need for new therapeutic approaches. We have designed and tested engineered repressors which could be effective in circumstances where current therapies fail. These consist of two modules: an interaction domain, which binds directly to the androgen receptor (...

Introduction: There is a growing interest in cell-based therapies in T2DM as β-cell failure is progressive and inexorable. This study evaluates the efficacy of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell transplantation (ABM-MSCT) in T2DM.Methods: This prospective, randomised, single-blinded placebo-controlled study enrolled 20 patients with triple oral hypoglycaemic drug failure and requiring insulin ≥0.4 Units/kg per day for achievi...