Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diagnosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) is often a challenge and involves biochemical characterisation and anatomic localisation of the tumour. Wherever feasible, curative surgical excision is the treatment of choice.Materials and Methods: Twenty four consecutive patients with pancreatic NETs were referred for consideration of surgery over a six-year period (1999–2005). Following use of multi imaging modalities to localis...

Introduction: The development of colorectal cancer is influenced by dietary as well as growth factors. Butyrate, (NaB) one of the metabolic by-products of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibre is a primary source of energy for colonic mucosa. It has growth-promoting effects on normal colonic epithelial cells, induces cell cycle arrest, differentiation and apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells. Since it has been suggested that the apoptotic effects of NaB may be due to its syn...

The effect of growth hormone (GH) replacement on thyroid function in hypopituitary patients has only been studied in small groups of children and adults with conflicting results.We aimed to define the effect and clinical significance of adult GH replacement on thyroid status in a large cohort of 243 patients with hypopituitarism due to various causes. 84 patients were considered euthyroid before GH treatment and 159 patients had central hypothyroidism an...

Clinical case: A 30-year-old Eritrean presented as an emergency to the orthopaedics surgeons with radicular back pain. Following L3/L4 spinal decompression, he was noted to be classically acromegaloid and was transferred to the Endocrine Unit, where a mild bitemporal upper quadrantinopia was noted. GH was massively elevated at 1200 mU/L, IGF1>130 nmol/L, with associated corticotroph and gonadotroph insufficiencies requiring replacement. MRI showed a large pituitary adenoma...

Introduction:Hepatic IGF-I is generally believed to be regulated by pituitary-derived GH. However recent studies have emphasized the importance of paracrine/autocrine IGF-I in normal growth and development, as well as some malignancies. However, it remains unclear how locally produced IGF-I is regulated. The aim of this project was to investigate IGF-I expression in different tissues from the growth hormone receptor knock-out (GHR-KO) mouse.<p class=...

Introduction: The GH/IGF-I axis has been implicated in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and development of tamoxifen resistance. We have previously used siRNA to successfully silence the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. To further characterize the growth changes that occur when elements of the GH/IGF-I axis are disrupted we investigated the use of siRNA to cause long term silencing of IGF-IR.Methods: MCF-7 cells were cultured in phe...

A 34-year-old woman was referred by her GP in 2000 with thyrotoxicosis (TSH undetectable, free T4 36.4 pica moles per litre, reference range 10-25). She had no ophthalmic symptoms or signs and no goitre. There was no family history of thyroid disease. Her thyroid peroxidase antibodies were undetectable but thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin was 30 (Reference range 0-15) confirming Graves' disease. Carbimazole was initiated but changed to propylthiouracil after a pre...

Background: There is considerable evidence to support a role for the GH/IGF-I axis in the development of breast cancer. We have previously demonstrated that IGF-I is expressed in both normal and malignant breast tissue, but that approximately 10% of primary breast cancers reveal no IGF-I mRNA expression. However the molecular differences between IGF-I positive and IGF-I negative tumours is unknown.Aims: To investigate the molecular differences between IG...

Background: Previous studies have implicated the GH/IGF-I axis in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and the development of tamoxifen resistance. IGF-I is a known proliferative and anti-apoptotic agent. In order to characterize the growth changes that occur when elements of the GH/IGF-I axis are disrupted we have used siRNA to transcriptionally silence the IGF-IR in the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line.Methods: MCF-7 cells were cultured in phenol red-f...

IntroductionIncreased cross talk between the IGF-I and oestrogen signalling pathways has been implicated in the development of tamoxifen resistance in breast cancers. We have previously demonstrated IGF-I mRNA to be down-regulated in primary breast cancers. However, the expression of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in recurrent, tamoxifen-resistant tumours is unknown.MethodsTotal RNA was extracted from 38 paired samples of...