Endocrine Abstracts

A 75-year-old man was admitted acutely with a 1 week history of headaches, reduced visual acuity, diplopia and ptosis of his left eye. Examination confirmed a left III and VI nerve palsies with decreased visual acuity in the left eye. A CT and subsequent MRI revealed pituitary mass lesion measuring 2.4×2.1×1.5 cm with extension into the left cavernous sinus. The pituitary stalk appeared thickened and was deviated to the right. The optic apparatus was uninvolved.<...

Nearly all the functions of the liver display zonation in distribution within each the lobule. Hepatic cortisol availability is controlled by enzymes that regenerate cortisol from inactive cortisone (11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1, 11β-HSD1). Dysregulation of hepatic 11β-HSD1 activity has been implicated in insulin resistance. Key processes such as gluconeogenesis are located in the periportal hepatocytes, although current dogma describes hepatic 11&#94...

Background: A variety of thyroid antibody assays are used in the diagnosis of auto-immune thyroid disease (AITD). Commonly both thyroid peroxidase (TPOab) and thyroglobulin antibodies (TGab) are measured but the added value of testing two markers has not been established.Method: We retrospectively collected clinical and laboratory data on 500 consecutive patients who had thyroid autoantibodies requested from a specialist endocrine department of a tertiar...

Introduction: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is part of the spectrum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NASH commonly occurs in patients with type 2 DM and is less recognised in type 1 DM. The natural history of NASH in adult patients suggests potential development of progressive fibrosis and cirrhosis. However, secondary glycogenosis, commonly occurs in type 1 DM, is reversible when good glycaemic control is achieved, but may be misidentified as NASH b...

Glucocorticoid excess is characterized by increased adiposity, skeletal myopathy and insulin resistance. Although there is a strong inverse correlation between intramuscular triglyceride (IMTG) levels and insulin sensitivity, the impact of glucocorticoids upon the processes that regulate skeletal muscle lipid metabolism has not been explored.Mouse C2C12 skeletal myocytes were grown to confluence and differentiated into myotubes in chemically defined medi...

Parafibromin is a tumour suppressor protein, encoded by the gene responsible for the hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour (HPT-JT) syndrome, which is an autosomal dominant disorder, characterised by parathyroid tumours, ossifyfing fibromas, renal and uterine tumours. Parafibromin is a component of the polymerase-associated factor 1 (PAF1) complex and interacts directly with β-catenin, although these functions do not fully explain its role in tumourigenesis. To further investiga...

MicroRNAs are highly conserved non-coding RNAs that regulate diverse cellular processes. Altered microRNA expression is observed in many human cancers and microRNAs may have tumour suppressor or oncogenic properties. One group of putative tumour suppressor microRNAs is the let-7 family whose expression is reduced in several human tumours, and which inhibit the expression of several oncogenes including HMGA2 and K-Ras. Let-7 expression have also been observed to b...

Context: Prolactinomas are the most common functioning pituitary adenomas & it is recognised that gender has an influence on presentation and management of this condition.Objective: To examine the effects of gender on presentation and response to treatment in a large cohort of adults with confirmed prolactinoma (MRI performed and macroprolactin excluded).Design & patients: This retrospective cohort study design used an elec...

11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) converts inactive glucocorticoid to their active form (cortisone to cortisol in humans, 11-dehydrocorticosterone (11-DHC) to corticosterone in mice), and is dependent upon the presence of cofactor NADPH generated by the enzyme hexose-6-phosphate (H6PDH) for its activity. The 11β-HSD1/H6PDH system is implicated in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome by generating tissue specific glucocorticoid excess. The ...

6-Phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGDH) is the third enzyme of the oxidative phase of the pentose phosphate pathway. The cytosolic form of this pathway is well characterised, but the details and significance of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) version are only beginning to be understood. We have previously identified hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PDH), which catalyses the first two steps of this pathway within the lumen of the ER, as a pivotal regulator of ER reductases s...