Endocrine Abstracts

An large number of clinical entities are associated with abnormal bone mineral density. On one end of the spectrum, the sclerosing bone dysplasias are characterized by an excess of bone tissue. These conditions are, in most cases, monogenic diseases with involvement of one gene resulting in a clear mode of inheritance. Molecular genetic studies over the last decennia revealed the underlying genetic causes for many of them. The pathogenic mechanism can either be a decreased bon...

Background: The ‘intact’ parathyroid hormone (PTH) assays recognizes PTH (1–84) as well as amino terminally truncated fragments (C-PTH fragments). The present study investigated whether the use of plasma PTH-(1–84)/C-PTH fragment ratio enhances the noninvasive assessment of bone metabolism in patients on dialysis.Methods: Blood samples of 45 healthy subjects with normal ‘intact’-PTH values and 135 samples of dialysis patient...

The occurrence of obesity and the related metabolic syndrome increases dramatically worldwide. A positive energy balance causes obesity. Facultative thermogenesis, which is the increase in energy expenditure in response to cold or diet, may be an effective way to affect the energy balance.Several studies have confirmed that humans show significant (mild) cold induced thermogenesis, i.e. without shivering. Tissues shown to be involved in adults are skelet...

Host responses to critical illness, such as excessive inflammation and hyperglycemia, trigger detrimental chain reactions that damage cellular proteins and organelles. Such responses to illness contribute to the risk of non-resolving multiple organ dysfunction and adverse outcome. Autophagy is a bulk degradation pathway able to remove toxic protein aggregates and damaged organelles. Morphologically, both liver and muscle of critically ill patients reveal an autophagy-deficienc...

The incidence of the metabolic syndrome has reached epidemic levels in the western world. With respect to the energy balance most attention has been given to reducing energy (food) intake. Increasing energy expenditure is an important alternative strategy. Adaptive thermogenesis, which is the increase in energy expenditure in response to cold or diet, may be an effective way to affect the energy balance.Several studies have confirmed that humans show sig...

Vitamin D is one of the major factors involved in calcium and phosphate homeostasis via actions on intestine, kidney, parathyroid gland, and bone. In addition, vitamin D has effects on various cells and tissues not primarily related to calcium, phosphate and bone metabolism, including the immunesystem, brain, and various cancer cells. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to incidence and progress of various diseases. Currently there is an increase in discussion on the question about...

GH levels decline with aging and this is thought to contribute to the age-related decrease in bone mass. However, data on the effects of GH replacement on osteoporosis are contradictory. The potential therapeutic benefits depend on the dose, frequency and duration of treatment. It is for this reason that treatments with GH secretagogues (GHS), which stimulate pulsatile release of GH as occurs in normal physiology, have been postulated to be a more successful therapeutic approa...

Sleep curtailment has become a common behavior in industrialized countries. Simultaneously, the aging of the population is associated with an increased prevalence of sleep disturbances. These trends for shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality have developed over the same time period as the dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes. There is recent evidence to indicate that chronic partial sleep loss and decreased sleep quality may increase the risk of...

The concept of tissue-specific gene expression is familiar to endocrinologists. Starting from the multipotent fertilized egg, selective gene expression is required to generate different tissue and cell types during development. There is generally progressive differentiation of initially dividing, but progressively committed, cells to form mature organs. Timing, size and positioning of organs and the setting up of connections between them all require complex regulation by netwo...

Recently, the concept that stress hyperglycemia in critically ill patients is an adaptive, beneficial response has been challenged. Two large randomized studies demonstrated that maintenance of normoglycemia with intensive insulin therapy substantially prevents morbidity and reduces mortality in these patients. Since then, questions have been raised about the efficacy in general and in specific subgroups, and about the safety of this therapy with regard to potential harm of br...