Endocrine Abstracts

Circadian, 24 hr, timing is a conserved feature of physioloogy and behaviour across eukaryotes. In mammals the principal clock resides in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus (SCN). Through neural and endocrine linkages the SCN direct the daily temporal programme of brain and peripheral tissues. The core clockwork is based on a cell-autonomous, self-sustaining feedback loop of gene expression. Mutations of mammalian homologues of 'clock' genes identified in lower spe...

Type 2 diabetes is likely to be caused by defects in several genes and their interactions with lifestyle and environmental factors. During the recent years there has been a true increase in the incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. With increasing prevalence of obesity worldwide the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes has emerged. In addition to general obesity, other major modifiable risk factors for Type 2 diabetes are central obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, low ...

Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells derived from preimplantation embryo. In culture these cells can differentiate into a broad variety of cell types, such as nerve, muscle heart, blood cells and islet cells. This capacity for multilineage differentiation is retained during genetic manipulation and in vitro propagation. This has stimulated interest in the isolation of analogous cells of human origin. Such human pluripotent cells would constitute a renewable so...

For more than a dozen years, a major combined biological and clinical research endeavour has been dedicated to the set up of new therapeutics based upon cell and gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. This research essentially takes into account two determinant characteristics of all these diseases, that can be briefly summarised as follows: 1. a neurodegenerative disease is due to the loss of one or a small number of specific populations of neurones, allowing in some ca...

Thyroid hormones are known to be important for optimal development of the human central nervous system. Classically, maternal thyroid hormones have not been thought to play a major role in defining central nervous system development. However, recent epidemiological evidence has indicated that subtle deficiencies in circulating maternal thyroid hormones in the first trimester of pregnancy are associated with adverse neurodevelopment.We have used real-tim...

In the United States of America, among adults, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased nearly 5 fold over the last half century. During this unfolding epidemic among adults, type 2 diabetes has now emerged among children. Primarily thought to be a disease of adults, type 2 diabetes was first described among Pima Indian children in the late 1970s. Since then, a number of clinic-base case series have clearly described type 2 diabetes in children of all racial and ethnic ...

Michael Besser, St Bartholomew's and Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK AbstractProfessor Michael Besser qualified in medicine in 1960 at the Medical School of St Bartholomew's Hospital, and then undertook a number of junior medical posts there and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the Royal Brompton Hospital. He started his academic work initially as junior lecturer in therapeutics i...

The fetus and neonate pass through critical periods which permanently determine cardiovascular and endocrine control. Such programming can occur covertly in fetal life, and may ultimately have deleterious consequences for the adult.Animal models demonstrate that maternal dietary imbalance produces offspring with elevated blood pressure and perturbed HPA axis responses. However, the late gestation fetus is not hypertensive, and models such as carunclectom...

Introduction: The utility of serum calcitonin has been evaluated in a series of prospective, nonrandomized studies suggest that the use of routine serum calcitonin for screening may detect C-cell hyperplasia and medullary thyroid cancer at an earlier stage and overall survival may be improved. Elisei et al. estimated that routine measurement of plasma calcitonin in thyroid nodule patients would yield an additional 2.2 life-years per positive patient.<p class="abstex...

Objective: Increasing evidence suggests a role for mineral metabolism in cardio-vascular disease risk. We aimed at determining in type 2 diabetes patients the relationship between serum levels of 1–84 parathormone (PTH1–84), 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D) or calcium and the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin sensitivity or β-cells function, but also the relationship between these factors and coronary arterial disease confirmed by myocardial scintigraphy.<p...