Endocrine Abstracts

I have been the module leader for the Paediatric Endocrinology: exploring practice module for several years. Amongst those nurses who access or contribute to the course it is clear to see the wealth of knowledge, clinical expertise, enthusiasm for the subject area and professional commitment to delivering high quality nursing care to children, young people (CYP) and their families. Excellent examples of nursing care for CYP are presented in the assignments and every year I app...

Introduction: The age range at diagnosis, complexity of the syndrome and the sensitive and emotional nature of the issues involved in a diagnosis of Turner Syndrome (TS) present specific challenges for health professionals in sharing information with girls and their families. However little is known about the perceived information needs of parents and there has been no study of the views of girls with TS.Methods: A qualitative design was employed to expl...

A longstanding unsettled question is whether pancreatic β-cells originate from exocrine duct cells. We have now used a genetic labeling approach to fate map embryonic and adult pancreatic duct cells. We employed a BAC genomic clone containing the Hnf1b locus to generate a transgenic mouse line that expresses a hormone-inducible form of Cre in pancreatic ducts. We verified that in this model Cre is specifically expressed throughout the pancreatic duct epithelium, in...

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Although scientists have been seeking the mechanism of action of hormones for over 100 years, which is often before the identity and structures of many hormones were known, we are still unable to say definitively in molecular or structural terms how any hormone exerts a given physiological action. This failure is largely due to the fact that most investigations are technology driven and not hypothesis based. At the same time, two important features of hormones and their action...

Estrogen signaling is mediated by two isoforms of the soluble estrogen receptor (ER), ERα and ERβ. In general, ERα and ERβ appear to have distinct, specific actions, sometimes of antagonistic nature (yin/yang). ERβ is widely distributed and studies on mice with deleted ERβ show phenotypic alterations in many tissues, indicating that ERβ has essential roles in several physiological contexts. In the CNS, ERβ is essential for development of...

By Galen the pituitary was thought to be the ‘exhaust pipe’ of the brain producing phlegm. More recently it was the conductor of the endocrine orchestra but we now know that for the most part the pituitary itself is conducted by the hypothalamus, the hormones of which gave some of their discoverers the Nobel Prize (1977).Pituitary disease is much commoner than was thought previously. In Oxford, we have the good fortune to have large numbers of ...