Endocrine Abstracts

In mammals, spontaneous apoptosis is observed particularly in differentiating spermatogonia and spermatocytes. We have previously demonstrated that 17β-estradiol (E2) in primary rat pachytene spermatocytes (PS) binds ESR1 and GPER1 to activate EGFR/ERK/c-Jun pathway leading to up regulation of bax, a pro-apoptotic factor. Aim of this study was to clarify the effector pathway(s) controlling spermatocytes apoptosis using as model GC-2 cells, an immortalized mouse...

Introduction: The short synacthen test (SST) is commonly used to assess the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis in clinical practice. We evaluated the underlying clinical conditions pre-empting the request for a SST in a general medical ward and the adequacy of clinical follow up of patients with suboptimal responses to the test.Methods: All patients with suboptimal SST results (30 min cortisol level 450–540 nmol/l) performed in the Acute Asse...

Metallothioneins (MT) are cystein-rich intracellular proteins which exert anti-apoptotic effects by protecting cells against oxidative stress and DNA damage. Previously, expression of MT in normal and neoplastic thyroid tissue has been demonstrated. However, the thyroidal regulation of MT expression is widely unsettled. Thus, we investigated the expression of MT isoform 1 in human thyroid carcinoma cells (FTC-133-TSHR) upon stimulation with thyrotropin (TSH). Using quantitativ...

Growth through the pubertal progress is notoriously difficult to track and interpreting abnormal patterns is tricky. Current growth charts are unhelpful. I will present new analyses of understanding of growth patterns and the tempo of pubertal changes and how they all link together. The RCPCH has launched a specialist growth chart in June to help identify and diagnose abnormal growth patterns during puberty. These include growth centiles for extremes of stature and weight, and...

Once induction of puberty has been completed the options for sex steroid hormone replacement change to take in to account long term health outcomes and the issues of transition from pediatric to adult care. With regard to the late stages of development, some thought has to be given to the fact that bone mass continues to increase to reach a peak at about the age of 25. It may not be until the age of 18 that meaningful bone density results can be obtained. For those who are slo...

Thyroid hormones T4 and T3 regulate many different physiological processes in different tissues in vertebrates. Most of the actions of thyroid hormones are mediated by the thyroid hormone receptor (TR), which is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription regulators. There are two different genes that encode two different TRs, TR alpha and TR beta, and these two TRs are often co-expressed at different levels in different...

We have proposed twelve years ago that bone mass accrual, energy metabolism and reproduction must be coordinately regulated by hormones that would appear during evolution with bone. This hypothesis has been tested and verified in several ways one of them being to show that osteocalcin, the most osteoblast-specific secreted protein, is a hormone that regulates insulin secretion, glucose homeostasis, energy expenditure and male fertility. The metabolic function of osteocalcin ha...

The presence of a craniopharyngioma, and/or treatment related damage to centres in the hypothalamus that regulate energy balance often results in severe obesity and abnormal eating behaviours. This may be exacerbated by hormonal deficits from coexistent hypopituitarism.Decreased activity of sympathoadrenal activity, deregulated parasympathetic activity, marked hyperinsulinaemia and elevated leptin disproportionate to fat mass are evident. Plasma levels o...

Hereditary pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PHEO/PGL) syndrome is a rare disease. It has been demonstrated that about 25% of the apparently sporadic PHEO/PGL are due to a germ line mutation in one of the susceptibility genes, such as, VHL, RET, NF1, TMEM127, MAX and the genes encoding the four subunits of the mitochondrial enzyme succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) as well as the gene encoding one SDH assembly factor, SDHAF2. SDH is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane and is ...

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is a condition in which a person experiences discongruency between their assigned sex and what they feel their genderidentity is. A person with gender dysphoria experiences persistently uncomfortable feelings about their birth gender (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth edition (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).During the ‘real life experience’ hormonal treatment starts an...