Endocrine Abstracts

Glucocorticoids (Gcs) act through the ubiquitously expressed glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Transcriptional activation by the GR involves interaction with co-modulator proteins, the expression level of which can mediate Gc sensitivity. The aim of this study was to identify additional GR interacting proteins that may influence Gc sensitivity.Using a yeast two-hybrid screen we identified a novel GR interacting protein, R59, which showed an enhanced interact...

Liver X receptors α and β (NR1H3 and NR1H2) play major a role within cells and tissues involved in lipid metabolism and cholesterol homeostasis including macrophages, the liver and the small intestine. Within the skin however, the roles of LXR are less well documented, although in vitro studies using primary human keratinocytes have implemented LXR in the formation of the stratum corneum via the increase of transcription of the proteins involved in the AP-1 co...

Oestrogens have important modulatory effects on the skin and the hair follicle. Although they inhibit hair growth in animal models, their effect on human hair growth is less clear. Therefore, we have investigated the effect of oestrogenic compounds on human hair growth in vitro using a whole follicle assay system.Individual microdissected hair follicles from female temporal/occipital scalp (n=6, age range 49–69 mean age 54.67yrs) were incuba...

Objective: To improve post-operative thyroid surgery practice and to determine if it would be safe to perform thyroid surgery as day surgery. To identify the nature and timings of acute life threatening airway complications, trends in current practice, and gain information on perioperative mortality....

The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are important regulators of cellular function, with effects on growth, survival and metabolism mediated primarily through the type 1 IGF receptor (IGFIR). Recent work suggested that localisation of IGFIR to a subset of lipid rafts, known as caveolae, may be important for IGF function. In this study we have investigated whether these membrane domains were involved in IGF-I-mediated cell survival by comparing signalling in caveolae-positive...

Neuronal glucose and insulin signals are integrated by hypothalamic neurons to regulate energy balance. These signalling mechanisms are not clearly defined in the hypothalamus, and may be altered in obesity and diabetes. This study aimed to analyse quantitatively hypothalamic expression of candidate genes in signal transduction pathways and investigate dysregulation using Zucker and Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) models.Taqman RT-PCR was used to compare exp...

Macroprolactin, a circulating complex of monomeric prolactin together with an autoantibody, is commonly encountered in the course of endocrine investigations. It is generally agreed macroprolactin exhibits reduced bioactivity in vivo since individuals who harbour the complex do not demonstrate the classic clinical signs or symptoms characteristic of true hyperprolactinaemia. The aim of this study was to compare the relative potency of purified preparations of macroprolactin to...

Where screening for macroprolactin takes place, laboratories routinely rely on treatment of sera with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to distinguish macroprolactinaemia from true hyperprolactinaemia. However, PEG is incompatible with a number of common immunoassay platforms. The aim of this study was to assess the specificity and clinical utility of ultrafiltration as an alternative procedure for removal of bio-inactive prolactin IgG complexes such as macroprolactin from serum prior...

Adult growth hormone replacement is currently given by daily sc injections in the vast majority of children and adults treated for growth hormone (GH) deficiency. In recent years, sustained-release preparations of GH have been developed; the preparations available so far maintained therapeutic GH concentrations for approximately 14 days, but were characterised by a dominant early release, which resulted in high supraphysiological early GH peaks, and a rapid decline thereafter....

In breast cancer associations between p160 co-activator proteins and the development of resistance to endocrine treatment have been shown. We hypothesized that nuclear co-regulatory proteins may interact with non-steroid receptors. We investigated the effect of silencing the co-activator, SRC-1, on tumour cell growth in vitro. We also examined the MAPK activated transcription factors, Ets, as possible interaction proteins of the co-activator SRC-1 in human breast cancer. The e...