Endocrine Abstracts

Case: A 22-year-old lady was referred with marked hirsutism for 12 months and secondary amenorrhoea for 4 years. She has a complex medical background including persistent hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia of infancy (PHII) necessitating subtotal pancreatectomy with subsequent diabetes. Perhaps a result of PHII, she also has learning difficulties and epilepsy. Other problems include myopathy and mild chronic thrombocytopaenia.Medications: insulins glargine ...

Insulin resistance is associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome and hypertension. These risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease may be programmed by the early diet. Previous studies have shown poor insulin sensitivity in obese relative to lean sheep. Here, we considered whether insulin sensitivity in pre- and postnatally nutritionally challenged sheep offspring was due to changes at the pancreatic level. Thirty-six twin-bearing ewes were randomly allocate...

Introduction: The production of an oocyte competent of fertilisation and normal embryonic development is controlled by a series of highly organised signals and intracellular events which are known to be affected by physiological glucocorticoids. The actions of these adrenal steroids are modulated by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) enzymes and we have recently reported that 11β-HSD activity in porcine oocytes increases 20-fold during meiotic maturation...

Aim: Management of type 1 diabetes in children is a complex process. Active participation of the child and family in diabetes care is essential for achieving good glycaemic control. A good parental understanding of diabetes and its management would be considered a prerequisite for their involvement in the care of their children’s diabetes. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between parental knowledge of diabetes self management and glycaemic control of ...

It is generally considered that sight-threatening retinopathy is most unlikely within 5 years of diagnosis in a young patient with acute onset diabetes. We present the case of a 27 year old who developed severe bilateral proliferative retinopathy within 6 months of diagnosis.She consulted her about GP about long standing irregular periods. As she was overweight the GP checked a random blood sugar which was16. HBAIC was 9.2%. There was a family history of...

The murine ACTH receptor MC2-R is primarily expressed in the adrenal cortex and adipocytes where it binds ACTH leading to steroidogenesis and lipolysis, respectively. We have recently shown that the previously described 'adrenal' MC2-R promoter is transiently activated by PPAR gamma 2 early during differentiation of murine 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes, declining to background levels from a peak of activity seen at day 4 following commencement of adipogenesis. This is mirrored by the ...

Background - Adverse fetal nutritional supply results in programmed endothelial dysfunction and hypertension in offspring. Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS), Endothelin-1 (ET-1), and human Cationic Amino acid Transporter-1 (hCAT-1) are key players in endothelial function. We have shown that hCAT-1 is down-regulated in smaller neonates. One possible explanatory mechanism is DNA methylation, which reduces gene expression. In mice and rat models maternal diets with altered leve...

Introduction: In endocrine tumours, such as that of the breast, the protein survivin has emerged as a unique regulator of cell death. We have previously shown that bFGF regulates survivin expression through the MAP kinase cascade. The transcriptional complex myc/max is an oncogene that lies downstream of the MAP kinase pathway suggesting a possible role in survivin's regulation.Aim: To determine if bFGF can mediate survivin expression by signalling throu...

Background: Statins are widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs. They inhibit cholesterol synthesis through inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase. They have also been recently identified as bone stimulatory agents (Mundy et al., 1999). They have been found to increase the expression of BMP-2 that triggers a cascade of events leading to increased bone formation. However, the exact mechanism for the stimulatory action of statins is not fully elucidat...

The peptide hormone ACTH can stimulate lipolysis and suppress leptin expression in murine adipocytes. These effects are mediated via the Melanocortin 2 Receptor (MC2-R), which is expressed when 3T3-L1 cells are induced to differentiate into adipocytes. In this study we have investigated the transcriptional activation of the MC2-R gene during adipogenesis.5' deletion analysis of the murine MC2-R promoter revealed the presence of a transcriptional enhancer...