Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinopathy that is associated with anovulatory infertility, menstrual disturbances and an adverse metabolic profile. Although the pathophysiology of PCOS remains unclear, dysregulation of gene expression has been previously shown in theca and granulosa cells. In this study, we used RNA-Sequencing to compare the transcriptomes of human granulosa cells from women with and without PCOS. Granulosa cells were retri...

Introduction: Over half of postmenopausal women suffer symptoms which can sometimes be non-responsive to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Testosterone is implicated in regulating urogenital and sexual function in women. However, using testosterone therapy in postmenopausal women remains highly controversial, principally due to the lack of syndromic relationship between serum testosterone levels and onset of sexual dysfunction during menopause. Clinical practice is therefore ...

Case history: An 18-year-old Caucasian female presented with primary amenorrhoea after her younger sister aged 16 years old started menstruating. She had a normal childhood and progressed through puberty normally, with no past medical history or family history. BMI was 22.6 with a normal examination including secondary sexual characteristics (Tanner Stage 5) and no signs of hyperandrogenism.Investigations and Results: Bloods showed an elevated LH:FSH rat...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinopathy that is associated with anovulatory infertility, menstrual disturbances as well as an adverse metabolic profile. Although the pathophysiology of PCOS remains unclear, dysregulation of gene expression has been previously shown in theca and granulosa cells (GC). However, there has been no comprehensive analysis of steroidogenic gene expression in GCs from women with PCOS. In this study, we performed a comprehensive gene...

Background: Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) and Antral Follicle Count (AFC) are both principally used as markers of ovarian reserve and available in all UK hospitals. The utility of these markers in the binary diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) by published criteria, such as Rotterdam, has been previously reported. We evaluated their utility in the evaluation of oligo/amenorrhoea in healthy young non-obese women.Methods: Women with both ov...

Background: Kisspeptin stimulates gonadotropin secretion indirectly by stimulation of hypothalamic GnRH neurons. Kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptor, a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), are also expressed in the human ovary, but their direct actions on ovary, if any, are unclear.Objectives: To examine the direct actions of kisspeptin on granulosa lutein cells (GL cells) and the role of kisspeptin in steroidogenesis.Materials and me...

Hyperandrogenism in women, most typically in polycystic ovary syndrome, is associated with insulin resistance and altered morphology and function of adipose tissue but little is known about the direct effects of androgen on adipose. The aims of this study were to investigate (1) distribution and relative abundance of androgen receptor (AR) in mouse adipose tissue (2) effect of temperature on AR expression in brown and white adipose depots (BAT, WAT) and (3) effects of androgen...

The prenatally androgenised sheep, like the Rhesus monkey, is an informative model for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We have recently demonstrated that AMH protein is reduced in preantral follicles of PCOS ovaries (Stubbs et al, Endocrine Abstracts 2004, 7 P186 ). We hypothesized that reduced expression of AMH is an effect of androgen excess. The aim of this study was to examine AMH immunostaining in ovaries from prenatally androgen-treated and control ewes. Ovaries were t...

Early follicular development in polycystic ovaries (PCO) is abnormal; a higher proportion of follicles have entered the growing phase than in normal ovaries [1]. IGF-I stimulates the initiation of preantral follicle growth in a human tissue culture system using a growth factor-reduced extracellular matrix, Matrigel [2]. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of IGF-I on early preantral follicle development in polycystic and normal ovaries. Small ovarian cortical biop...

Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is expressed in the ovary, in granulosa cells (GC) of preantral and antral follicles. Mice lacking the AMH gene show an increase in the proportion of early growing follicles and a reciprocal decrease in the primordial pool, suggesting an important role in early follicle growth. Little is known about the expression of AMH in the human ovary. Recent studies have shown that the proportion of follicles entering the growing pool is increased in PCO, sim...