Endocrine Abstracts

Not everyone who has the capacity to make positive choices about their lifestyle to care for their health is either ready or willing to make these choices. This lack of interest is frustrating for both family members and healthcare professionals. Many young people living with diabetes understand why caring for diabetes is important but do not see it as a priority and do not have the confidence to put different behaviours into practice. Confidence to change requires the young p...

Embryonic transcription factors have been involved in tumourigenesis. The transcription factor TBX1 regulates the embryonic parathyroid cells fate. Indeed, it has never been investigated in human adult parathyroids. Here, expression, function and regulation of the TBX1 gene were analyzed in adult normal and tumour parathyroid tissues. Immunohistochemistry identified 30–70% (mean±S.E.M, 52.0±7.3%) of cells expressing TBX1 at nuclear levels...

In large community surveys, there is a consistent absolute excess of psychological caseness in subjects on thyroxine (T4) compared to age and sex matched controls of around 6%. Part of this likely to be ‘confounding by indication’ – i.e. that some individuals failed to respond to T4 as hypothyroidism was not the cause of their psychological morbidity in the first place. However, the observations that normalisation of intracellular thyroid h...

The embryonic transcription factor TBX1 plays a critical role in cell differentiation during organogenesis of the parathyroid glands. Here we demonstrated that TBX1 mRNA and protein were detected in human adult normal parathyroid tissues (n=3). Immunostaining showed that TBX1 protein was expressed in endothelial CD31+, alfa-SMA+ cells. By contrast, TBX1 mRNA and protein was expressed at higher levels in parathyroid typical adenomas (n=23), where TBX1 staining was...

Background: Increased levels of cortisol are associated with worse prognosis in heart failure (HF). The final step in cortisol production is catalysed by 11β-hydroxylase encoded by CYP11B1, which is highly homologous with CYP11B2. A common polymorphism in the aldosterone synthase gene (CYP11B2 −344T) is associated with a raised ratio of 11-deoxycortisol/ cortisol (S/F). We examined the relationship between −344C/T polymorphism and corticos...

Thyroid hormone is absolutely necessary for early brain development.Incidence of thyroid disorders in infancy is 1:4,000.Thyroid hormones can be deficient through hormone synthesis and action or very rarely through defective transport. Some new and exciting transporters for tri-iodothyronine (T3) have recently come to light.MCT 8 gene encodes the protein that transports T3 into neurons. Its mutation result in inability of T3 to enter a developi...

Low-T3 syndrome (euthyroid sick syndrome) develops in critically ill patients. Due to the catabolic state, accompanying critical illnesses, enhanced oxidative damage to macromolecules is expected to occur in subjects suffering from the low-T3 syndrome.The study aimed at evaluating the level of lipid peroxidation products in blood serum, collected from critically ill patients with the low-T3 syndrome and at estimating the ...

Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is a high-affinity binding protein for androgens and estrogens. According to the “free hormone hypothesis”, SHBG regulates the free sex steroid fraction and restricts androgen bioactivity. SHBG has also been independently associated with diabetes, osteoporosis etc., but whether this represents causality or residual confounding remains unconfirmed. We studied mice overexpressing human SHBG. Using multiligand liquid chromatography ta...

Background: Cross-sectional studies in small and selected populations indicate a relatively high prevalence of incipient and/or subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), which could have therapeutic implications.Aim: To estimate the prevalence of CS in a large, unselected cohort of recently diagnosed T2D patients.Methods: A total of 384 consecutive out – patients with T2D diagnosed after ...

Aim: Comparison of the parameters of obesity with the newly-defined adipocytokines in females applying to our clinic for obesity.Method: Demographical data of 36 obese females were determined. Cases were classified as obese and morbid obese according to BMI values. Biochemical parameters were measured for all the cases. Thicknesses of subcutaneous and visceral fatty tissues were measured on ultrasonography. Statistical significances were evaluated by app...