Endocrine Abstracts

I guess the fact that I was awarded my first MRC grant 30 years ago and my present programme grant runs out at the end of next year gives me at least some personal experience in writing successful grants and thus the reason the Society has asked me to give this talk. In the early 90s I was also a member of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Board of the MRC and so was able to observe the mechanism of grant assessment first hand.I will discuss the various...

Throughout pregnancy, the placenta controls the metabolism of the mother for the benefit of the foetus, sometimes to such an extent that in humans the mother's health is compromised. As there are no neural connections, the main means by which the placenta controls the mother's metabolism must be endocrine in nature. Unfortunately the foetal blood that perfuses the placental/uterine boundary cells to carry oxygen and nutrients back to the foetus will also collect the very hormo...

Phil Lowry, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK AbstractProfessor Phil Lowry is best known for his research on pituitary hormones, corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and the involvement of neuropeptides in pre-eclampsia. A peptide biochemist by training, his preparations of purified corticotrophin (ACTH) and growth hormone (GH) became standards of the World Health Organisation...

A greater understanding of mineralocorticoid hormone action in recent years has facilitated the elucidation of the molecular basis of several 'salt-wasting' and 'salt-retaining' disorders.In mineralocorticoid-responsive salt transporting epithelial cells of the distal nephron, colon and salivary gland, aldosterone or, depending upon the activity of 11beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11beta HSD2), cortisol, interacts with the mineralocorticoid re...

Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) is an a/b heterodimeric transcriptional complex that mediates a broad range of cellular and systemic responses to hypoxia. Transcriptional targets include genes involved in angiogenesis, erythropoiesis, catecholamine metabolism, matrix metabolism, energy metabolism and cell survival decisions. Whilst HIF-b subunits are constitutive nuclear proteins, both the abundance and activity of HIF-a subunits are strongly inducible by hypoxia, leading to fo...

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Case 1This 26 year woman presented with a pituitary macroadenoma because of headaches, visual field loss and secondary amenorrhoea. Features of acromegaly and galactorrhoea were absent, serum prolactin and basal investigation were normal. Post operative testing revealed normal ACTH reserve but basal growth hormone was 4.2 mu/l rising to 67.6 mu/l in an ITT. Pituitary histology revealed positive immunostaining for growth hormone and prolactin. IGF-1 was n...

The last ten years of research and clinical trials has emphasised the association between diabetes and hypertension. In type II diabetes >70% have associated hypertension according to criteria of >140/80 mmHg. In the majority of patients no secondary cause will be elicited, but recent data have described a higher prevalence of secondary causes in hypertensive patients than previously suspected. A review of secondary causes (hyperparathyropdism, Cushing's, phaeochromacytoma, ac...

An increasing number of factors exclusively or predominantly expressed in and released from adipocytes have been identified and shown to have important functions for energy metabolism. Adiponectin is one of these factors that have been implicated in the control of systemic insulin sensitivity. We have recently shown that pharmacological elevation of adiponectin levels results in a transient decrease of plasma glucose levels. This is primarily achieved through a repression of h...

Growth hormone (GH) secretion peaks in early adult life and declines progressively with age. People over the age of 60 have levels of GH secretion comparable to those in younger people with severe GH deficiency from pituitary tumours or their treatment. GH-dependent markers such as IGF-I, BP3, ALS and the collagen markers P-III-P, PICP, ITCP and osteocalcin all fall with age in parallel with the fall in GH secretion. Although exercise is one of the major stimuli to GH secretio...