Endocrine Abstracts

Within the adrenal gland, chromaffin cells and their progenitors are exposed to a wide variety of growth factors and hormones, including adrenal androgens such as DHEA. The DHEA producing-zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex is in close proximity to the neural crest-derived catecholamine-producing chromaffin cells of the medulla, enabling strong paracrine interactions. In vivo studies in humans revealed that congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase ...

Objectives: Oxidative stress is of critical importance in the pathogenesis of endocrinopathies. Since cholesterol serves as a major source of steroid hormone synthesis we investigated the effect of hypochlorite-modified low density lipoprotein (LDL) on aldosterone and cortisol release from human adrenocortical NCI-H295R cells.Methods: Native LDL obtained from healthy volunteers was oxidized to varying degrees by sodium hypochlorite. The resulting modifie...

Chromaffin cells from adrenal medulla are the main source of epinephrine and norepinephrine hormones which are known to mediate so called fight-or-flight response to multiple environmental stress conditions. Chromaffin cells together with sympathetic neurons share the same sympathoadrenal cell lineage, but in contrast to neurons they maintain their proliferation during whole life span. However, little is known about chromaffin cells regeneration in an adult adrenal medulla.</p...

This study examined whether different forms of hereditary pheochromocytoma are characterized by different catecholamine phenotypes and whether this is reflected by differences in plasma concentrations of normetanephrine, metanephrine and methoxytyramine – the respective O-methylated metabolites of norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine. Subjects included 154 patients with hereditary pheochromocytoma, 72 with tumors associated with von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) syndrome, ...

One important risk factor for the development of arterial hypertension is abdominal obesity. Aldosterone, secreted by adrenocortical cells, promotes sodium and water retention and by that regulates blood pressure homeostasis. Increased serum aldosterone levels have been linked to the development of obesity hypertension. Therefore, identifying the link between obesity and increased aldosterone secretion is of high importance for the management of obesity hypertension.<p cla...

The Hippo kinase cascade is a crucial signalling pathway regulating organ growth during development in numerous organs. There is mounting evidence implicating this signalling pathway in tumour formation, where it is emerging as an anti-cancer target due to effective pharmacological inhibition of its transcriptional activators YAP/TAZ. We previously demonstrated activity of the Hippo kinase cascade in the mouse pituitary and nuclear association of YAP/TAZ with SOX2 expressing p...

Pituitary stem cells (PSCs) expressing SOX2 persist throughout life, giving rise to all pituitary endocrine lineages. These cells are highly active at early postnatal stages but this potential declines with age, rendering them mostly inactive in adulthood. The LATS/YAP/TAZ signaling cascade can influence stem cell fate and activity in multiple tissues and we previously identified activity of this axis in the developing and postnatal pituitary. Using a series of genetic manipul...

A tightly regulated stress system is pivotal for health and the adrenal cortex is a master regulator of the endocrine stress response. The adrenal cortex is characterized by constant cell renewal in part mediated by differentiation and lineage conversion of undifferentiated cell types. To date, the contribution of stem cells to organ plasticity during stress has been implicated but is not fully understood. Recently, we were able to show that a prolonged stress exposure leads t...

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by the hyperactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to increased steroidogenesis and altered cortisol secretion. The molecular signaling mechanisms underlying HPA axis alterations in metabolic diseases remain poorly understood. In this study, our objective is to investigate how changes in signaling molecules within both plasma and adipose tissue contribute to the regulation of adrenal steroidogenesis in metabolic...

Glucocorticoids (GC) are one of the most potent anti-inflammatory pharmacological agents. However, owing to their pleiotropic nature, their clinical effectiveness is frequently limited by their deleterious off-target effects. Frequently, metabolic abnormalities arise from GC excess involving the development of dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance and muscle atrophy as well as excessive fat accumulation in both white adipose tissue (WAT) and the liver. In addition, suppressed ther...