Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Women with epilepsy may be at risk of developing PCOS, but it is unclear whether this is due to the disease or sodium valproate (VPA) therapy. We sought to determine androgenic status and cardiometabolic risk in women taking VPA monotherapy and compared these with subjects taking lamotrigine and healthy controls.Methods: Patients with epilepsy (age 18–43) with no known vascular risk were divided into 3 groups: VPA monotherapy (n=1...

The sodium iodide symporter (NIS) mediates the uptake of iodide into thyroid follicular cells. The pituitary tumor transforming gene (PTTG) is a multifunctional oncogene which stimulates expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) via PTTG binding factor (PBF). PTTG and FGF-2 inhibit iodide uptake in rat thyroid FRTL5 cells and PTTG and PBF repress NIS mRNA expression and iodide uptake in primary human thyroid cultures. To determine whether this regulation is a direct tra...

Glucocorticoid (GC) excess is characterized by increased adiposity, skeletal myopathy and insulin resistance. Despite the increasing use of GCs as therapeutic agents, the molecular mechanisms that underpin the GC mediated changes in insulin signalling are not clear. The majority of previous studies have used rodent models and have shown regulation at the level of the insulin receptor (IR), IRS-1 and PI3 kinase.Primary cultures of human skeletal myocytes ...

Neuropeptide S (NPS) is a recently discovered peptide shown to be involved in the modulation of arousal and fear responses. It has also been shown that lateral ventricle administration of NPS causes a significant decrease in food intake. Neuropeptides involved in the modulation of arousal have been shown to be involved in the regulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and food intake.Objective: To examine the effect of NPS on the regulati...

Thyroid hormones play a major role in the metabolic function of mammalian cells and are of particular importance in the development of the fetal brain. The MCT8 gene has recently been shown to encode an active and specific thyroid hormone transporter. Recent reports have identified mutations in the MCT8 gene in several unrelated boys presenting with severe X-linked psychomotor retardation and elevated serum T3.Ontogeny of mRNA encoding MCT8 was examined ...

Backround: Male hypogonadism is associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular risk factors and approximately 25% of males suffering with coronary heart disease are hypogonadal. Few studies have assessed the impact of testosterone therapy on vascular function in hypogonadal individuals and none have investigated the weekly impact of gradually reducing testosterone concentrations on vasculature.Patients and Methods: 10 hypogonadal subjects (6 wi...

Recently, linkage between chromosome 1q23 and rheumatoid arthritis within the Japanese population has been narrowed down to association of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), fcrl3_3, fcrl3_4, fcrl3_5 and fcrl3_6, within FCRL3, a known regulator of B cell signalling. Of these four SNPs, fcrl3_3 was shown to disrupt FCRL3 expression on B cells, suggesting a potential etiological role. Association of fcrl3_3 was also replicated in a Japanese Graves’ disease ...

We aimed to establish the extent of adult cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) in Ireland, and examine the differences between patients with CFRD and those with normal glucose handling.We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) who attend the national referral centre for adult CF. Data including lung spirometry, sputum microbiology, bone mineral density and genotype were collected. Patients were diagnosed as having CFR...

Kisspeptin is the peptide product of the KiSS-1 gene and endogenous agonist for the GPR54 receptor. The kisspeptin/GPR54 system has recently been suggested as a key regulator of the reproductive system. GPR54 deficient mice have abnormal sexual development and low circulating gonadotrophins and in humans, GPR54 mutations have been shown to cause hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. Thus, GPR54 appears to be essential for normal gonadotrophin secretion and the regulation of puberty....

Synthesis of thyroid hormones by the fetal thyroid requires the passage of iodide through the placenta. In the thyroid active iodide transport is facilitated by three transporters, the sodium iodide symporter (NIS), Pendrin (PDS) and the recently described the human apical iodide transporter (hAIT). Simultaneous expression of all three transporters appears to be thyroid restricted and although extrathyroidal expression of individual transporters has been reported, relatively l...