Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Metabolic endotoxaemia (raised bacterial endotoxin in serum after high-fat feeding) has been shown to reduce insulin sensitivity in humans through systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. Mitochondria represent the main source of cellular reactive oxygen species and mutations in mitochondrial DNA often result in a diabetic phenotype. However, the direct cellular impact of endotoxin on mitochondrial respiration and DNA integrity, particularly within the context o...

Background: The pathogenesis of obesity and T2DM mediates mitochondrial dysfunction which, in part, may arise as a consequence of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. However, the potential impact of ER stress on mitochondria dysfunction is unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether induction of ER stress contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction in human adipocytes using 1) human differentiated adipocyte cell line (Chub-S7, n=12); and 2) primary differentiated lean and...

Background and aims: Current evidence highlights that dietary cholesterol, trans-fatty acids and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are all known to increase the levels of systemic atherogenic lipoproteins and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to observe the direct effect of dietary change, via a calorie-restricted diet on i) cardio-metabolic profile and ii) a high-fat meal challenge pre- and post-3-month intervention.Methods: T2DM subjects (Sa...

Background: Small frequent meals are often recommended for weight loss, with supporting evidence often provided from studies in diabetes. Dietary meal content is also relevant, as high fat meals cause systemic inflammation via gut derived bacteria, endotoxin. As such, repeated meals may exacerbate this. In contrast, dietary induced thermogenesis, related to meal size, may reduce with small frequent meals.Aim: Therefore, the aim of this study was to compa...

Background: Vitamin B12 (B12) insufficiency is common in pregnancy and independently predicts insulin resistance (IR) in the offspring. B12 is an important key nutrient for epigenetic programming through regulating DNA methylation. Such B12 DNA methylation may influence leptin, a strong candidate for methylation, which could impact both insulin resistance (IR) and associated neonatal metabolic risk. Therefore, we hypothesize that leptin can be programmed by maternal B12 which ...

Introduction: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare, heterogeneous, genetic connective tissue disorder that manifests clinically as bone fragility, brittleness and growth disorder. Effective diagnosis is important (although often challenging) to enable institution of early and effective multidisciplinary management.The case: A 19-year-old woman was referred to the Endocrine clinic at the Warwickshire Institute for the Study of Diabetes, Endocrinology an...

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (LpPLA2) is a member of the phospholipaseA2 super family of enzymes, and is upregulated in arterial inflammation, obesity and cardiovascular disease. The other isoforms, iPLA2 and cPLA2, appear to contribute to inflammation through production of lipid mediators. The role of PLA2 in human adipose tissue (AT) is unclear, therefore we sought to i) characterise PLA2 isoforms in lean, obese, T2DM abdominal subcutaneous (AbdSc) and omental (Om...

Background/objectives: Irisin is a novel myokine, released predominantly by skeletal muscle. Peripheral action of irisin improves glucose homeostasis, increases energy expenditure and induces browning of adipocytes, with therapeutic potential for use in weight loss. However, there are no human studies on the central role of irisin in the regulation of appetite or energy expenditure. This study sought to examine the potential central role of irisin, by demonstrating irisin in h...

Studies in India (vegetarian population) show that vitamin B12 insufficiency is common in pregnancy and independently predict adiposity and insulin resistance in the offspring. Epigenetic programming is postulated as, along with folic acid, B12 is crucial for DNA methylation. Therefore, we investigated whether maternal B12 levels in a non-vegetarian UK population predict metabolic risk of the offspring.Paired maternal venous and cord blood samples (n...

Mitochondria are essential for synthesising ATP required for cellular metabolism. In response to changes in their cellular environment, mitochondria are able to alter their morphology and abundance through the balance of “fusion” and “fission” events. The aim of this study was to profile the expression of mitochondrial genes in the abdominal subcutaneous (AbSc) adipose tissue (AT) of lean, obese and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) individuals and determine ...