Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a nontraditional risk factor that predicts cardiovascular disease but its relationship between diabetes and insulin resistance is not well documented. We evaluated the association of CRP levels and insulin resistance in a group of patients at high risk for diabetes.Materials and methods: In this study we evaluated 22 first degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients with impaired glucose tolerance test (Group 1) an...

Numerous clinical manifestations have been described in association with Cushing’s disease (CD). There was no eligible data on pulmonary function tests in CD patients. We aimed to assess pulmonary function test included spirometry in a series of patients with active Cushing’s disease (2 men, 9 women). Mean age, height, weight, body mass index were 36.7±12.6 (range 22–63 years), 156.9±8.4 cm, 74.1±10.7 kg, 29.6±3.8 kg/m2, respective...

Objective: Patients with hyperthyroidism occasionally need rapid restoration to the euthyroid state. In wiew of the increased enterohepatic circulation of thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) in thyrotoxicosis, and metabolic effects of konjac glucomannan in gastrointestinal system, we aimed to determine the activity of glucomannan in treatment of hyperthyroidism.Methods: A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, one-blind study design was used w...

Background: Clinical manifestations of hyperthyroidism resemble those of hyperadrenergic state. Previous studies of linear analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) revealed cardiac autonomic dysfunctions in hyperthyroidism. In recent years, increasing attention is being directed to the nonlinear analysis of HRV to gain insight into neural modulation of heart rate dynamics. Based on the chaos and fractal theory, an attractor in phase space can characterize the dynamics of a cha...

BackgroundThere is a need to develop a highly sensitive and reliable immunoassay method for the determination of testosterone concentrations both in children and adults. Testosterone in blood is largely bound to proteins (sex hormone binding globulin and albumin). The unbound fraction of testosterone is considered to be the biologically active hormone which correlates more closely with the physiologically effective level of this hormone. It is postulated...

In Europe the trace element selenium has been shown to be diminished on farmland and consequently in the food chain. Selenoproteins play a major role in the redox-systems of the body; glutathion-peroxidase is important for the enzymatic reduction of hydroperoxides in the thyroid gland. Furthermore, various forms of dejodases contain selenium, which convert thyroxin into triiodthyronin.We investigated the incidence and the extent of selenium deficiency in...

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to differentiate into various lineages in vivo and in vitro. Recent reports have shown that adult mouse bone marrow can differentiate toward a pancreatic endocrine beta-cells phenotype; Once engrafted into the host, bone marrow-derived cells exhibit markers and physiological behavior characteristic of pancreatic beta-cells, thus providing a new methods for the therapy and treatment of diabetes. In this study, we explore...

Use of somatostatin (SRIF) analogs in acromegaly indicates greater lowering of IGF-I than predicted from GH reduction. Studies using hypophysectomized rats suggest a direct SRIF action on GH-induced IGF-I, however, interpretation is complicated by effects of SRIF on other hormonal axes. In isolated rat hepatocytes we showed SRIF and octreotide to have a direct inhibitory effect, via hepatic SSTRs, on GH-induced IGF-I production. GH (500 ng/ml) caused ~4 fold induction of IGF-I...

Many studies have been demonstrated that baicalin, a kind of flavonoid isolated from an important medicinal plant Scutellariae Radix, could inhibit tumorigenesis, but the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. So this study was designed to investigate whether baicalin could perturb the cell cycle progression on insulinoma cell line, RINm5F, from American Type Culture Collection and discuss the possibly molecular mechanisms. After baicalin treatment, changes in morphology ...

In recent studies pancreatic stellate cells, an undifferentiated cell type, have the capacity of extended selfrenewal and are able to differentiate spontaneously into cell types of all three germ layers expressing markers for smooth muscle cells, neurons, glial cells, epithelial cells, chondrocytes and secretory cells (insulin, amylase). Here we investigated the protocol that induced pancreatic stellate-like cells to neuron in vitro. Pancreatic stellate-like cells from adult S...