Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Congenital central hypothyroidism occurs either as isolated TSH deficiency or in conjunction with other pituitary hormone deficits. Undetected central hypothyroidism is associated with developmental delay in children and adverse cardiometabolic sequelae in adults. Hitherto, mutations in the TRH receptor (TRHR) or TSHβ subunit (TSHB) genes are the only known causes of isolated TSH deficiency.Methods: Using whole exome and candidate gene...

GnRH is secreted in pulses and its effects on pituitary gonadotropes depend on pulse frequency. This is crucial for physiological control and therapeutic manipulation of the system (in IVF and treatment of hormone-dependent cancers) but GnRH pulse frequency decoding mechanisms are unknown. The simplest form of frequency dependence is a linear relationship between integrated inputs and outputs but such ‘integrative tracking’ cannot explain the bell-shaped frequency-re...

Professor Jonathan R Seckl, UK AbstractThis prestigious prize is intended for established workers in the field of basic and clinical neuroendocrinology and is generously supported by Ipsen. This year’s recipient is Professor Jonathan R Seckl. The prize will be presented as part of the ICE/ECE 2012 opening ceremony where Prof. Seckl will deliver his lecture. Prof. Seckl will also deliver two other l...

The V600E mutation of BRAF oncogene is one of the most frequent genetic events in thyroid cancer, particularly in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) and in some anaplastic carcinomas that derive from preexisting PTC. It has been associated with advanced clinical stages, extrathyroidal extension, and a high risk of recurrences, particularly those that have lost the ability to accumulate iodide, a property mediated by the sodium iodide symporter (NIS).Our ...

Illicit expression of membrane receptors for circulating regulatory factors, such as gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), luteinizing hormone (LH) and serotonin (5-HT) receptors, has been well documented in ACTH-independent macronodular adrenal hyperplasias (AIMAHs) causing Cushing’s syndrome. In addition, we have observed an abnormal expression of ACTH in some steroidogenic cells in two AIMAH tissues. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of local pro...

Increased activity of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) was observed in early stage of hypertension onset. The aim of our present study was to estimate catecholamines response to stress stimulus (insulin induced hypoglycaemia) in young males with early diagnosed non-treated hypertension grade 1 (HT) and normotensive controls (NT).Methods: Insulin tolerance test (ITT, 0.1 IU/kg body weight, Actrapid HM, i.v.) was performed in 21 HT male subjects aged 20.0&...

Mitotane (o,p’DDD) represents the most effective treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). However, molecular mechanisms of mitotane action remain poorly understood. Mitochondrial (mt) impact of mitotane has previously been suggested but not yet fully validated. We investigated functional consequences of mitotane exposure on mitochondrial steroidogenesis, respiratory chain activity and biogenesis, using human adrenocortical secreting H295R and non-secreting SW13 cells....

Recently we demonstrated a close correlation between the gestational age (GA) and steroid metabolome in maternal and fetal body fluids using multivariate models including both unconjugated (n=39) and conjugated steroids (n=30) that were measured by GC-MS method including two separate multicomponent analyses (for unconjugated steroids and steroid polar conjugates). We focused on the comparison of the predictive value of the levels of unconjugated steroids alone, c...

Although neuroactive steroids are well characterized, their physiological relevance in human pregnancy remains indecisive. Hence, we attempted to derive this information from the combination of our metabolomic data, pharmacological data found in the literature and knowledge contained in gene expression databases. These results indicate that GABAergic steroids influence maternal CNS but have limited effect in the fetal brain and maternal and fetal periphery, partly because of t...

To test the feasibility of reconstructing ex situ an entire bioartificial thyroid gland suitable for transplantation we have bioengineered a rat thyroid lobe using its decellularized stromal / vascular matrix, eventually 3D recellularized with thyroid stem / precursor cells. Sprague-Dawley male rats (220–240 g) were used as thyroid donors, and lobe matrixes obtained by freezing / detergent / enzyme processing. Test matrixes were made electrondense and analyzed by m...