Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: We examined whether sequential enhancement patterns of pituitary microadenomas on dynamic MRI correlates with different subtypes of pituitary tumors.Materials and methods: Patients with pituitary microadenomas imaged via dynamic MRI between years 2000 and 2012 were included. The intensity of the adenoma and of normal gland at each time point in the dynamic sequence was measured by drawing a region of interest (ROI) on both the normal pituitary...

There is limited evidence on the effect of potassium (K+) supplementation on endothelial function. Three studies suggest a beneficial effect in healthy volunteers and mild hypertensives. However potassium increases aldosterone due to a direct effect on the adrenal gland and there is evidence that aldosterone excess is detrimental to cardiovascular health. We therefore aimed to determine the effect of potassium supplementation on endothelial function in patients with >10% c...

There is limited evidence on the effect of potassium (K+) supplementation on endothelial function. Three studies suggest a beneficial effect in healthy volunteers and mild hypertensives. However potassium increases aldosterone due to a direct effect on the adrenal gland and there is evidence that aldosterone excess is detrimental to cardiovascular health. We therefore aimed to determine the effect of potassium supplementation on endothelial function in patients with...

Introduction: Currently group education facilitation skills are not part of foundation nurse, medical or dietetic training. Additionally there is no nationally recognised evidence based structured education programme for paediatrics which meet the DoH criteria (2005). Consequently paediatric diabetes teams cannot access group facilitation skills through programmes such as DAFNE and DESMOND in contrast to colleagues working with adults. A one day workshop on group facilitation ...

Introduction: Regulation of HER2 through the transcription factor PEA3 is associated with tumour progression and resistance to endocrine treatment in human breast cancer. The mechanism of this resistance remains unclear. Activation of estrogen receptor co-activator proteins via the MAP-kinase pathway is thought to be central to tamoxifen insensitivity. We hypothesised that activation of HER2 by PEA3 may result in activation of co-activator proteins such as AIB1 (amplified-in-b...

Introduction: Faslodex (Fulvestrant) is a novel antiestrogen, which has been demonstrated to have clinical efficacy in metastatic breast cancer. It is thought to mediate it's effects by downregulating ER expression. ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate genes relevant to breast cancer progression. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that Faslodex may modulate the recruitment and intera...

Mutations of parafibromin, which is a 531 amino acid protein, are associated with the hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour (HPT-JT) syndrome. HPT-JT is an autosomal dominant disease that is characterised by the occurrence of parathyroid tumours, which are commonly malignant, and ossifying fibromas of the jaw bones. To date 13 different inactivating germline mutations (3 nonsense, 9 frameshift and one missense altering the initiation codon) of PARAFIBROMIN have been identified in HPT...

The capacity of the adrenal to produce cortisol is controlled in part by the transcription of 21 hydroxylase(CYP21) and production of androgens by 17 hydroxylase/17-20 lyase(CYP17) in response to secretogoues including ACTH, angiotensin-II(A-II) and forskolin. Both mRNA and protein expression of CYP21 was upregulated in the presence of forskolin and A-II alone and in combination in vitro H-295 adrenocortical cells, as detected by northern and western blotting. Whereas, ...

ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate expression of target genes. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that these co-regulators are expressed in breast cancer tissue and may be differentially regulated by estrogen and tamoxifen.ER-alpha, ER-beta, the co-activator SRC-1, and the co-repressor SMRT were localized within breast tissue by immunohistochemistry, and the spatial co-expressi...

ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate expression of target genes. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that these co-regulators are expressed in breast cancer tissue and may be differentially regulated by estrogen and tamoxifen.ER-alpha, ER-beta, the co-activator SRC-1, and the co-repressor SMRT were localized within breast tissue by immunohistochemistry, and the ...