Endocrine Abstracts

A decline in skeletal muscle nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) can decrease mitochondrial function and energy metabolism in age-related metabolic disease. Restoration of NAD+ using the precursor nicotinamide riboside (NR) may serve to support age and disease driven impairment of mitochondrial energy metabolism. Manipulating NAD+, and consequently cellular pyridine nucleotide NAD(P)(H) pools, may impact the flux of glucose through intermediary energy metabolism pathways....

Ageing is associated with sarcopenia, osteoporosis and an increased risk of falling, which together contribute to increased fracture risk. There are few data describing the associations between functional measures of muscle and bone during ageing. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine in ageing men associations between measures of lower-limb muscle strength and age and then to investigate the relationships with tibial bone outcomes.Men (n</...

The most common form of endocrine cancer is differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Outcomes of DTC largely depend on radioiodine treatment, which is mediated the sodium-iodide symporter (NIS). However, many tumours exhibit NIS dysregulation, resulting in a poorer prognosis. Since breast cancer can also overexpress NIS, albeit of limited function, radioiodine treatment may be a promising treatment option. Our previous data show that overexpression of the pituitary tumor-transform...

Background: Kisspeptin stimulates gonadotropin secretion indirectly by stimulation of hypothalamic GnRH neurons. Kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptor, a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), are also expressed in the human ovary, but their direct actions on ovary, if any, are unclear.Objectives: To examine the direct actions of kisspeptin on granulosa lutein cells (GL cells) and the role of kisspeptin in steroidogenesis.Materials and me...

Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) is due to parathyroid hormone (PTH) resistance that results in hypocalcaemia, hyperphosphataemia and elevated plasma PTH concentrations. Some PHP patients also have Albright’s hereditary dystrophy (AHO), which is characterised by short stature, round faces, dental hypoplasia, brachydactyly, subcutaneous ossifications and reduced mental acuity. The 3 major types of PHP referred to as PHP type 1a (PHP1a), PHP1b and pseudopseudohypoparathyroidi...

Islet transplantation, an effective treatment for Type I Diabetes, is compromised by transient ischemia. Ischemia reduces the viability and function of transplanted islets and may also promote signals that lower islet efficacy. In order to characterize the response of human islets to transient ischemia, high-throughput sequencing was employed to determine global gene expression. Islets isolated from healthy donors (n=4) were either pelleted in microcentrifuge tubes (i...

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) occur in multiple sites including, the pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, lung, thymus, parathyroid, adrenals and pituitary. Current treatments for advanced NETs such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, rarely achieve a cure due to metastases at presentation therefore additional therapeutic treatments are required. Identification of cell surface receptors or binding sites that are unique or up-regulated on tumour or neuroendocrine tissue coul...

Introduction: Hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH), characterized by unregulated insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells, is an important cause of hypoglycaemia in children. Mutations in the KATP channel genes (ABCC8/KCNJ11) are the most common cause of congenital HH. The second common cause, hyperinsulinism hyperammonaemia (HIHA) syndrome caused by mutations in GLUD1 gene, is associated with elevated serum ammonia and protein sensitivity. W...

The Society for Endocrinology Nurse Committee provides national, international and local guidance, support and networking for nurses working in Endocrinology. Following review and revalidation of the endocrine nurse certificate, the Nurse Committee looked to explicate adult endocrine nurse competencies. The need for core competencies to standardise role expectations was a concern voiced from nurses and committee members. Up to the introduction of paediatric endocrine nurse com...

Hyperandrogenism in women, most typically in polycystic ovary syndrome, is associated with insulin resistance and altered morphology and function of adipose tissue but little is known about the direct effects of androgen on adipose. The aims of this study were to investigate (1) distribution and relative abundance of androgen receptor (AR) in mouse adipose tissue (2) effect of temperature on AR expression in brown and white adipose depots (BAT, WAT) and (3) effects of androgen...