Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) are hormone-secreting cells within the intestinal epithelium that play an important role in regulating food absorption, insulin secretion and appetite. To understand the molecular mechanism governing the function of EECs, it is important to investigate cell-type-specific gene expression. The aim of this study was to identify the transcriptome of human EEC populations from organoid culture.Methods: To label the f...

It is unclear why GHD is associated with a reduced quality of life. Previous studies of GHD have shown impaired cardiovascular function and an increased cardiovascular mortality. We investigated whether the reduced quality of life is correlated with cardiac function and levels of cardiorespiratory fitness.Eighteen adults (9 male) with severe, untreated, GHD were studied. Cardiac power and cardiorespiratory fitness were investigated using a new, non-invas...

Understanding the molecular factors that regulate human muscle mass is acquiring increasing scientific interest. Hitherto, known (+ve) endocrine regulators of lean body mass included the GH-IGF-1 system, anabolic steroids, and (−ve) myostatin. In order to elucidate this process further, we have investigated a clinical case at a genetic and phenotypic level. A 46-year-old man with idiopathic muscle hypertrophy requiring multiple therapeutic fasciotomies underwent clinical...

Objective: Motilin is a proximal small intestinal hormone with roles in gastrointestinal motility, gallbladder emptying and hunger initiation. The molecular mechanisms underlying motilin release in response to fats, bile and duodenal acidification are poorly understood, in part due a lack of suitable cellular and rodent models. We therefore generated a novel human intestinal organoid model with fluorescently labelled motilin-expressing M-cells, which we used to establish the k...