Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Waterhouse Friedrichsen syndrome-Severe adrenal insufficiency is a rare but life-threatening condition secondary to bilateral adrenal haemorrhages. In many cases, it is caused by fulminant meningococcaemia, but there are numerous other aetiologies, it can also be caused by use of medications that promote blood clotting, reduce platelet count, primary antiphospholipid syndrome, renal vein thrombosis or steroid use and has been associated with splenectomy as well. ...

Oestrogen is an important regulator of the pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL) in vivo, although the regulation mechanism is poorly understood. Liganded oestrogen receptor (ER) synergises with the pituitary specific factor Pit-1 on the rat PRL promoter to facilitate chromatin looping and increased transcription; however, no such mechanism has been reported for the human PRL promoter, in which the ERE sequence is altered.In pituitary GH3 cells stably transf...

Prolactinomas are the commonest type of functioning pituitary adenoma in man. High circulating oestrogen levels are associated with lactotroph proliferation and increased PRL secretion essential for lactation. In vitro, oestradiol induces proliferation of the rat pituitary somatolactotroph GH3 cell line, and chronic oestrogen treatment of Fischer-344 rats in vivo results in lactotroph hyperplasia and adenoma formation, though the mechanisms responsible remain elu...

Oestrogens are capable of inducing rat prolactin gene transcription through liganded Oestrogen Receptor (ER) binding a degenerate oestrogen response element (ERE) sequence on the promoter 1440 bp upstream of the transcription start site. ER binding is thought to interact with DNA bound Pit-1 leading to chromatin looping bringing enhancer elements into proximity with the transcription start site. This ERE sequence, TGTCActaTGTCA, differs from the consensus GGTCAnnnTGACC by two ...

The neuroendocrine and immune systems are closely linked, and cytokines such as IL-1, IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), secreted by immune cells or neighbouring pituicytes, may have important local effects on pituitary function to modulate endocrine mechanisms of regulation.We have analysed the transcriptional regulation of the human prolactin (hPRL) gene promoter by TNF-alpha. Using stably transfected GH3 cells expressing luciferase und...

Gene expression in living cells is dynamic and unstable, and fluctuations in transcription may be subject to stochastic regulation of processes including transcription factor and polymerase recruitment, and chromatin remodelling. One gene that has been shown to display dynamically variable transcription and marked heterogeneity between cells is prolactin (PRL). Time-lapse imaging of PRL-reporter gene expression in single rat pituitary GH3 cells revealed distinct long-term tran...

: We report on 4 patients who acutely presented to our unit and diagnosed with adrenal haemorrhage.Case 1: A 72 year old man presented with generalised abdominal pain, fever and raised CRP a week after hip replacement surgery. CT abdomen showed non-enhancing bilateral adrenal lesions consistent with adrenal haemorrhage. He was taking Apixaban for DVT following hip replacement. SST was performed which confirmed suboptimal cortisol response. Hence, Treated...

A 57-year-old female who was previously healthy was admitted to hospital with a 2-week history of abdominal pain. On admission, she was tachycardic, tachypnoeic, hypotensive, and had abdominal tenderness. Her initial investigations revealed a neutrophilia with her biochemistry showing hyponatraemia (sodium of 124 mmol/l (135–145)) and normokalaemia (potassium of 4.7 mmol/l (3.5–5.5)). She had an urgent abdominal CT scan which showed evidence of a tubo-ovarian abscess...