Endocrine Abstracts

Nuclear receptors control developmental and physiological processes by regulating the transcription of gene networks in specific cells. This is achieved by the recruitment of coactivators and corepressors that lead to chromatin remodelling and alterations in gene transcription. RIP140 is a ligand dependant corepressor for nuclear receptors that plays key roles in adipose tissue and muscle to regulate energy homeostasis.RIP140 regulates carbohydrate and l...

Mouse distal Chromosome 2 has a proximal region containing a single imprinted gene, Neuronatin, Nnat. In situ hybridisation has shown strong expression of neuronatin in the embryonic mouse Rathke's pouch and primordial anterior pituitary (Wijnholds et al 1995, Dev Biol 171:73-84) and has been proposed to participate in pituitary development. Uniparental maternal inheritance of the proximal region leads to decreased folding of the cerebellum (Kikyo et al 1997, Dev Biol 190:66-7...

Prolactin secretion is sexually dimorphic and sensitive to changes in gonadal steroid and glucocorticoid status. Reports that the regulatory effects of glucocorticoids on prolactin release are mediated in part via annexin 1 (ANXA1, 1), have led us to compare prolactin secretion and lactotroph morphology in ANXA1 knockout (KO) and wildtype (WT) mice and to determine the effects gonadectomy +/- testosterone replacement (80 micrograms per day, s.c.) on (a) the plasma prolactin co...

Pregnancy is associated with increased circulating growth hormone (GH), which is thought to originate from the placenta in humans, but from the pituitary in rats. In this study we investigated the changes in somatotroph and lactotroph populations, and quantified spontaneous and secretagogue-induced GH and prolactin (PRL) secretion during pregnancy in rats.Using electron microscopy and immunogold labelling, somatotroph and lactotroph populations were quan...

Background: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Thus, there is the necessity to find new therapeutic approaches. Thyroid hormones (TH) have a major impact on cardiac function and even appear to improve the outcome after acute ischemia/reperfusion and in chronic heart failure. Still, TH signaling within the heart is not yet completely understood.Aim: This project aims to investigate the influence of TH receptor al...

Objectives: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare but life-threatening condition with severe liver dysfunction. In ALF liver regeneration capacity is exceeded due to loss of hepatocyte function. A well-known trigger of ALF is paracetamol (acetaminophen, APAP) intoxication. Unfortunately, based on the poor prognosis and rapidly increasing mortality rate liver transplantation offers the so far only effective therapeutic strategy. Even if the underlying mechanisms of ALF are not ye...

Background: Iodine nutrition relies on dietary intake. Marine foods are iodine rich, and they contributed markedly to the iodine intake among populations in Greenland. However, dietary habits are drifting away from the traditional diet dominated by iodine rich marine foods such as seal, whale, and seabirds. This led us to monitor iodine nutrition among populations in Greenland.Methods: Cohort studies were conducted in 1998, 2008, and 2018 including 50-69...

The systemic function of thyroid hormones (TH) is highly dependent on their local action in distinct cell populations. A major target of TH are immune cells, yet knowledge on the effect of TH on immune responses is still incomplete. Within this study we aimed to determine the impact of TH on T cells, key players of immune responses, in more detail. To this end, we analyzed the activation and function of T cells from mice lacking TRα (TRα0/0) or expressing ...

The immune system is a major target of thyroid hormones (TH), as they have been shown to act on innate as well as adaptive immune cells affecting their proliferation, activation and survival. However, the local TH action within the immune system is still poorly understood. To improve our understanding of this interaction, we performed an immunophenotyping of mice at baseline using flow cytometry and ELISA. For this, we focused on mice with TRα or TRβ mutations leadin...

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. TH have impact on cardiac function and even appear to improve outcome after acute ischemia/reperfusion and in chronic heart failure. This project aims to investigate the influence of TH receptor alpha (TRα) on IHD using specific mouse models to assess the contribution of canonical vs. non-canonical TH signaling. Mice underwent permanent ligation of the left descending coronary artery and were tr...