Endocrine Abstracts

Context: Metabolic diseases affect millions of people in both developed and transition countries. In addition to genetic inheritance of risk alleles, emerging evidence has shown that these diseases are also linked to lifestyle and inherited epigenetic pattern interactions. The strong link between epigenetics and metabolism may offer attractive clinical applications to counteract and manage the escalating prevalence of metabolic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellit...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a very rare neoplasm with an incidence of about one case per million population. It is an agressive tumor (overall 5-year survival 16–38%) and complete resection is the only curative treatment.Description of methods: We report four cases of ACC. The clinical and biochemical features at diagnosis along with clinical course of the disease are discussed.Results: Four patients (three...

Low plasma SHBG levels in overweight individuals are a biomarker for the metabolic syndrome and are predictive of type 2 diabetes and risk of cardiovascular disease. There are no in vivo models to study SHBG expression and regulation during obesity development. The main reason for this is that the obesity-prone rodent models cannot be used to study this issue since rodents unlike humans do not express the SHBG gene in their livers. We have developed by crossi...

Low circulating sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Mediterranean diet has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. We have recently shown that olive oil consumption is associated with elevated SHBG serum levels and that PPARγ downregulation induced by oleoyl-CoA is an important underlying mechanism of such regulation. Red wine is also an important component of the Mediterranean diet and its...

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is caused by a process of altered humoral and cellular immunity, resulting in the destruction of insulin-producing cells. VD(25(OH)D3) insufficiency is implied as risk factor for T1D, while VD substitution in infantry is associated with a reduced T1D incidence. In T1D daily insulin injection is required for a stable glucose homeostasis and insulin demand rises by a higher Body Mass Index (BMI). Today there are no studies investigating ...

Introduction: Several previous studies showed a reduced quality of life (QoL) in patients with Addison`s disease, but only few data on the potential influencing factors are available so far.Methods: We determined current QoL in 200 patients with Addison`s disease using AddiQoL-36, a questionnaire developed in collaboration with the European consortium Euradrenal. Furthermore, data about symptoms, diagnosis and medication were collected by questionnaires ...

Introduction: NAFLD has become the leading cause of liver disease in the Western world and has a strong association with obesity and diabetes. There are no studies of NAFLD in pregnant women.Methods: Pregnant volunteers (n=57) were recruited in the first or third trimester and evaluated for the presence of NAFLD using abdominal ultrasound scans using accepted criteria. Liver biopsies were not performed since this invasive procedure would present u...

Background: High prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in diabetic patients has been reported and has been associated with microvascular complications and insulin treatment in type 2 diabetic patients.Methods: Observational study in 92 inhospital patients with different types of diabetes. We analyzed the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) concentration and the clinical features associated with diabetes.Results: Of 36...

Nur77 is a nuclear orphan receptor belonging to the steroid receptor superfamily. A role for Nur77 has been described in proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, as a result of its induction in response to multiple signal transduction pathways. Previous studies have suggested that physical interaction between Nur77 and the tumor suppressor p53 can prevent p53 ubiquination and subsequent degradation by hMdm2. This suggests a possible role for Nur77 as a regulator of p53-de...

AimsTo compare baseline demographical and anthropometrical characteristics of patients referred to the multi-disciplinary weight management clinic at University Hospital Nottingham during 2003 with patients referred in 2001, co- morbidities, treatments used and achievement of the desired outcome of realization of 5 or 10 percent weight loss sustained over a 6-month period of follow-up.Results and DiscussionWe...