Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and aims: The role of screening for thyroid disease in diabetes (DM) remains controversial. We assessed the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction on first screening in a population of patients with diabetes who previously had thyroid function tests (TFT) only on clinical suspicion.Methods: TFT and thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO) were measured in 236 consecutive patients with DM (mean age 59±13 years, type1 16%, type2 84%, female 48%)...

In respect to growth, the adrenal is a dynamic organ that requires constant stimulation from peptides derived from the ACTH precursor pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) to maintain its tonic state. Previous studies have suggested that the adrenal mitogen resides in the N-terminus of pro-gamma-MSH, which upon cleavage results in the generation of shorter mitogenic peptides not containing the gamma-MSH sequence. This hypothesis has recently been substantiated by our characterisation of...

Serum IGF-I is increasingly used, and IGFBP-3 has been proposed, as a marker of treatment efficacy in patients with acromegaly. IGF-I bioactivity and half-life are dependent on the degree of IGF-I incorporation into 150kDa ternary complexes with IGFBP-3 and ALS. When serum GH is lowered in patients with acromegaly all three ternary complex components decline, but effects on ternary complex formation have not been described. We investigated GH action on ternary complex formatio...

Background: Pheochromocytomas are rare tumours arising from adrenal medulla. Recent findings show that about 30–40% of pheochromocytomas are caused by germline mutations in one of the ten hereto known susceptibility genes: SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, SDHD, SDHAF2, RET, VHL, NF1, TMEM127 and MAX. This list of genes is constantly growing. These ten genes together consist of 128 exons and a genetic screening test is both extensive time-consuming and expensive. We introduce utilizing N...

Introduction:Hepatic IGF-I is generally believed to be regulated by pituitary-derived GH. However recent studies have emphasized the importance of paracrine/autocrine IGF-I in normal growth and development, as well as some malignancies. However, it remains unclear how locally produced IGF-I is regulated. The aim of this project was to investigate IGF-I expression in different tissues from the growth hormone receptor knock-out (GHR-KO) mouse.<p class=...

BackgroundIn addition to inhibiting pituitary GH secretion, somatostatin (SS) and its analogues have been shown to exert anti-proliferative effects on a variety of different cell types. The presence of receptors for SS have been demonstrated in a number of tissues but quantification of mRNA expression of the 5 subtypes of SSTR in the colon is unknown.MethodsTotal RNA was extracted from 9 paired samples of adj...

11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1) activates cortisol (F) from cortisone (E). Our recent human studies identified 11beta-HSD1 to the non-pigmented layer (NPE) of the ocular ciliary epithelium, confirming that this enzyme is integral to the physiology of aqueous humour (AH) production vital for the maintenance of intraocular pressure (IOP). 11beta-HSD1 has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity, and our previous data have defined this enzyme i...

The epithelial cells of the choroid plexus (CP) are responsible for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) secretion into the ventricles of the brain, which then drains principally into the dural sinuses. The balance between production and drainage, in part, facilitates a normal intracranial pressure. The secretion of sodium and anions by the CP, creates an osmotic gradient driving the movement of water into the ventricles. This mechanism is analogous to that found in the ocular ciliary ep...

Background: Vitamin D prevents proliferation, promotes differentiation and induces apoptosis of colonic cells. A reduced dietary intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Recently, we have shown that 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1-alpha hydroxylase (1aOHase) mRNA, which converts vitamin D to its active metabolite, is upregulated in CRC. However, this was based on small number of samples and data on vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression in CRC are inconsisten...

Background: Sporadic colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is more common on the left side of the colon. Acromegaly confers an increased risk of developing CRC but with an increase of right sided disease. IGFBP-3 both regulates tissue exposure to IGF-I and also exerts cellular IGF-l independent pro-apoptotic effects. Whether variation in regional IGFBP-3 expression in the colon may explain the observed pattern of disease in both normal and acromegalic patients is unknown.Aim: 1) To c...