Endocrine Abstracts

BACKGROUND We examined the relationship between cigarette smoking exposure and serum IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3 levels in a broad-based population, as both smoking and changes in the IGF/IGFBP system have been implicated as risk factors for common epithelial cancers.METHODS Blood was collected from 442 unselected individuals (M, 232: F, 210) attending the Flexi-Scope colorectal cancer screening trial. All individuals were healthy and aged 55-64...

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has been used to express GFP in a variety of tissues. AAV has a tropism for neurones and we have been using AAV-GFP to determine the anatomical localisation of gene transfer after injection into the hypothalami of Wistar rats. The long term aim is to use this viral vector as a tool for investigating the hypothalamic control of appetite, energy expenditure and pituitary function.Male Wistar rats were anaesthetised and injecte...

Studies have demonstrated an increased mortality in patients with acromegaly. The major cause of premature death was cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular mortality was increased in patients with high levels of growth hormone (GH). Somatostatin analogues, such as octreotide, are effective in relieving the symptoms of acromegaly and supressing GH hypersecretion. Long acting preparations, such as Sandostatin-LAR, offer theoretical advantages over SC preparations, such as improv...

Introduction. We have previously used a synthetic phage display library to derive single chain (ScAbs) antibodies which bind GnSAF bioactivity in-vitro. However, recovery of GnSAF using the ScAbs, which tended to aggregate and become unstable, was limited. We have therefore engineered these ScAbs into full-length human IgG forms.Methods. CDR regions from soluble expression plasmids for two different GnSAF-recognising ScAbs were amplified by PCR. Two uni...

Ageing is associated with sarcopenia, osteoporosis and an increased risk of falling, which together contribute to increased fracture risk. There are few data describing the associations between functional measures of muscle and bone during ageing. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine in ageing men associations between measures of lower-limb muscle strength and age and then to investigate the relationships with tibial bone outcomes.Men (n</...

Context: Androgen excess, obesity and hyperinsulinaemia are the cardinal features of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). While several studies have addressed the relationship between androgen excess and hyperinsulinaemia, the link between androgen excess and fat distribution remains largely undefined. Recent work has highlighted the importance of adipose tissue as an organ of androgen activation. Here, we evaluated the relationship between visceral fat and androgen excess in w...

This study aimed at searching for malignancy in a group of 2300 patients with incidentally found adrenal tumours (1688 women and 612 men aged 11-87 years) registered at our Department of Endocrinology. The methods of investigation included clinical and imaging studies, hormonal assays and pathomorphological examinations in the patients treated by surgery. In 168 patients, aged 11 to 81 years, adrenocortical cancer was diagnosed ranging in diameter from 2.5 to 25.0 cm. In 7 pat...

Cancer cells have shown an overexpressed fructose transporter GLUT5 and preferential utilization of fructose as compared to glucose, implicating that a fructose-based analogue would be a useful target for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. We have successfully synthesized the fructose conjugated-gefitinib compounds {N-[4-(3-chloro-4-(3-fluorobenzyloxy)phenylamino)-7-methoxy-quinazolin-6-yl]-4- [N-methyl-N-(1-deoxy-1-fructosyl)]aminobutanamide}, and examined its antitumor effic...

Introduction: In case of inoperable disease or tumor recurrence, therapy with mitotane (MIT), sometimes in combination with doxorubicin (DOX), etoposide (ETO), cisplatin (CIS) or streptozocin (STREP), is frequently applied in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). The multidrug resistance pump MDR1 is responsible for resistance of tumor cells to cytostatic drugs. The activity of MDR1 is inhibited by the calcium-channel blocker verapamil. There are equivocal data in the ...

Objectives: To investigate whether there is a sex difference in serum leptin concentration in Chinese Type 2 diabetic patients with and without nephropathy.Methods: Early morning fasting serum leptin concentrations were measured in 34 Type 2 diabetic patients (mean age 62.1) with nephropathy (creatinine 120-450micromol/l and spot urinary albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) > 25 mg/mmol), 12 newly diagnosed diabetic subjects (mean age 62.5) with normoalbumi...