Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Sleep loss is increasingly common in the western world and has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of diabetes mellitus and obesity.Objective: We hypothesised that short term sleep loss results in a diabetogenic metabolic status during carbohydrate challenge at a breakfast buffet.Subjects and methods: Fifteen healthy, normal-weight young men were studied in randomized balanced order on the subsequent morn...

Aim: To assess concentration (conc) of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and conc of N- terminated naturetic propeptyde type B (NTpBNP) in patients (pts) after cardiac arrest (CA) and their role for clinical state of pts after CA.Material: 52 pts after CA, 36 men and 16 women, in the age 62±13 years. CA was caused by ventricular fibrillation in 31 cases, by asystolia in 15 and by pulseless electrical activity in 6. 28 pts died after CA (P-CA-D), 24 survive...

BRAF point mutations are found in 29-69% of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). BRAF is a serine-threonine kinase involved in the phoshorylation of MAPK signaling pathway. The mutation is located in the exon 15 of BRAF, resulting in the substitution of valine to glutamate at codon 600 (V600E). Mutation generates unregulated B-Raf activity that leads to increased cellular proliferation. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of BRAF mutation in the Czech population...

Introduction: Cortistatin (CST) is a 17 amino-acid neuropeptide involved in sleep regulation. Due to its structural resemblance to somatostatin (SS), CST binds with high affinity to the 5 known SS receptors. CST also binds to the putative MrgX2 receptor. Previously we demonstrated that various types of human immune cells and tissues as well as lymphoid cell lines express CST mRNA. We suggested that CST plays a regulatory role in immune cell function both in physiological and p...

Background: Autoantibodies directed against complement C1q (anti-C1q) have been described in a number of systemic autoimmune disorders. In systemic lupus erythematosus, they are strongly associated with proliferative lupus nephritis. However, no study has focused on the presence of anti-C1q in organ specific autoimmune disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anti-C1q in autoimmune thyroid disorders (AITD).Methods: Serum levels...

Background, objective: Adipose tissue is known to secrete a multitude of bioactive adipokines and it seems that the majority of these adipokines is implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity and associated metabolic diseases. Existing research studies mostly concentrated on one or two adipokines and therefore, comparisons of the involvement of different adipokines in these disorders are difficult. Furthermore, associations of circulating adipokine levels with different fat comp...

Introduction: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used anti-inflammatory medications that cause many metabolic side effects. Long-term treatment with GCs causes obesity and induces insulin resistance in many metabolic tissues, including adipose tissue and muscle. Factors secreted by adipose tissue, so-called adipokines, including leptin and adiponectin, also regulate the glucose-insulin axis. Obesity increases circulating leptin but decreases adiponectin levels. Despite several s...

IntroductionAdrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) is a rare aggressive cancer which carries a poor prognosis. Adjuvant mitotane improves survival but is limited by poor response rates and resistance following tumour recurrence. Mitotane’s efficacy has been attributed to intracellular accumulation of toxic free cholesterol (FC) predominantly through inhibition of cholesterol storage through SOAT1. Yet SOAT1 specific inhibitors demonstrate inferior efficacy ...

Background: Autoantibody mimicry of hormone action at the thyrotropin receptor (TSH-R) and aberrant signaling of TSH-R by autoantibodies (TSH-R-Ab) causes autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, both of which affect millions of patients worldwide. In this multicenter, single blind study, the specificity, sensitivity and performance of a novel bioassay for stimulatory TSH-R-Ab were tested.Methods: TSH-R-Ab were measured in a...

Background: Thyrotropin receptor (TSH-R) blocking autoantibodies (TBAb) are present in 10-15% of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). TBAb are functional and clinically relevant. This multicenter study compares the sensitivity and specificity of five immunoassays for the measurement of TBAb and introduces a novel and ultra-rapid TBAb bioassay.Methods: Serum samples from AITD patients were tested with two TSH-R binding immunoassays (Cobas e411...