Endocrine Abstracts

A 42-year-old lady, previously fit and well, presented to the Accident and Emergency department following a cardiac arrest. She had received four D.C. shocks by the ambulance crew prior to cardioversion to sinus rhythm from ventricular fibrillation. She was admitted to ITU and during this admission developed a grandmal seizure. Physical examination was unremarkable and CT scan of her head was normal. Blood tests including full blood count and biochemistry were all normal excep...

Performance enhancing substances enjoy considerable popularity among athletes, particularly if deemed undetectable. Doping with growth hormone has been considered undetectable until recently. Two strategies have been pursued to detect GH doping: Pharmacological endpoints and GH isoform composition.For the former approach the consortium GH 2000/2004 has identified markers of GH action and found a combination of parameters from the IGF-system and collagen ...

Our recent studies show that perinatal exposure to the synthetic glucocorticoid (GC), dexamethasone, altered the number of dopaminergic cell bodies in mesencephalic nuclei in adult male and female rats, with implications for mood, behaviour and motor activity. The present study therefore aimed to determine whether hypothalamic dopaminergic populations are also subject to such 'programming' effects. Using timed pregnant rats, dexamethasone was included in the drinking water bet...

Aim: To investigate glucocorticoid (Gc) regulation of MIFBackground: MIF is a potent proinflammatory cytokine involved in inflammatory arthritis. Previous work suggested that MIF was induced by low concentrations of Gc, and may counteract their anti-inflammatory effect. The relationship between MIF and Gc has not been investigated in human cells.Methods: The human cell lines CEMC7A (T-lymphoblast) and A549 (lung epithelial) were us...

Pituitary resistance to thyroid hormone is a very rare cause of hyperthyroidism. It is characterized by normal, or elevated TSH concentration with high concentration of thyroxine and triiodothyronine.Here, we present a case of a 24-year-old woman who suffered from mild thyrotoxicosis and diffuse goiter for ten years. For several years she was under treatment with methimazole, but without any significant improvement, apart from the enlargement of the thyr...

The promiscuous low affinity neurotrophin co-receptor p75NTR, a member of the nerve tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily, mediates neuronal survival as well as death, and interacts with Trk receptors to increase their affinity for neurotrophins. Furthermore, p75NTR is the transmembrane signalling moiety which associates with the NOGO binding receptor for all CNC myelin-derived axon growth inhibitors in the injured CNS. We have shown in rats that intravitreal implan...

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of inflammatory processes which predicts vascular disease, and is raised in the circulation of women with PCOS. Metformin can be used to reduce insulin resistance in women with PCOS, leading to improved ovarian function and circulating lipid profiles. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of protracted metformin treatment on circulating CRP in women with PCOS.Methods: CRP was assessed in women with PCOS (n...

The consumption of a high energy (HE) diet causes a range of weight gain responses in the human population with some individuals resistant to diet induced obesity (DIO). The SD rat provides a model for DIO and this study examines the effects of HE diet on bodyweight, food intake and hypothalamic neuropeptide gene expression. 28 male out-bred SD rats (280.7±2.19g) were fed chow ad-libitum (AL) for 4 days then divided into 2 weight-matched groups: 20 rats were fed HE diet...

We report the case of a 74 year old woman, admitted as an emergency with suspected pelvic malignancy in whom the clinical features and the positive tumour markers were actually due to hypothyroidism. The presenting features included cachexia, anorexia and severe ascites. Vital signs were normal. Examination revealed bilateral pleural effusions but no abdominal masses were palpable. Rectal examination was unremarkable. Investigations showed an extremely elevated CA 125 level of...

The sequence of pituitary growth hormone (GH) is generally strongly conserved in mammals, but short bursts of rapid change during the evolution of primates and artiodactyls have led to marked differences in primary structure and biological specificity in human and ruminant GHs. Recent molecular studies have shown that Cetacea are nested within Artiodactyla, and the combined grouping (Artiodactyla and Cetacea) has been termed the Cetartiodactyla. To explore further GH evolution...