Endocrine Abstracts

Background: We have recently demonstrated universal and high levels of expression of growth hormone in the human colon, despite the absence of GHRH or its receptor. Although ghrelin, recently shown to be an additional endogenous GH secretagogue, is expressed in the human colon, little is known about its distribution within the colon or function and whether any effects are GH-dependent.Aims: To investigate the mRNA expression of ghrelin and ...

MIF can override the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids during immune response, and thus is an important pro-inflammatory factor. The presence of MIF in the cytoplasm of adenomatous cells of the anterior pituitary has been described, and high levels of MIF in other rapidly-proliferating tissues have been demonstrated. It is hypothesized that MIF release from these cells is influenced by the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, and that ACTH and MIF are released simult...

Introduction: Acromegaly is the most genetically determined pituitary disease.Objectives: We studied the prevalence of syndromic disease and germline mutations (AIP, MEN1, GNAS, PRKAR1A, CDKN1b) in a cohort of unselected, consecutive patients with acromegaly.Materials and methods: A total of 133 patients (79 females, 54 males, age range 16–75 years) with somatotroph pituitary neuroendocrine tumor who were studied at t...

Introduction: Aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) is a multifunctional co-chaperone protein with wide-ranging effects. It acts as a tumour suppressor in the pituitary, but may have other roles including oncogenic function in other tissues. To explore the molecular mechanisms, we have performed transcriptomic and phosphoproteomic analysis of Aip-knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts (Aip-KO MEFs) cells and integrated these data sets.<p class=...

A 16-year-old female presented with secondary amenorrhoea. Menarche was age 14 years and periods were less frequent over the preceding 12 months. There was no galactorrhoea, headache or visual field disturbance and no known family history of pituitary disease, tall stature or infertility. There were no clinical signs of Cushing’s disease or acromegaly and visual fields were full to confrontation. Height was 160 cm. Investigations showed a prolactin of 2,452 mIU/l (RR 102-...

Introduction: Although acromegaly and pituitary gigantism have the same pathological cause, they have different disease characteristics.Aim: To study tumour size, treatment course and the most common comorbidities in a population with young-onset acromegaly.Materials and Methods: UK Acromegaly Register (UKAR, 22 centres, 1997-2017) retrospective analysis, enriched with patients from the FIPA-consortium. We defined gigantism as diag...

Background: A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to assess the use of independent injections (self/partner/home-administered) as an alternative to healthcare-setting injections for chronic diseases. The primary objective was to identify studies reporting on independent injection of somatostatin analogues (SSAs). Comparative evidence on independent injection of other medications was examined as a secondary objective.Methods: MEDLINE/Embase/t...

Pseudoacromegaly or acromegaloidism is used to describe cases where acromegaly-related physical appearance can be observed without any abnormality in the growth hormone (GH) axis. Acromegalic features, in particular coarse facies, together with hypertrichosis, are typical manifestations of one of the pseudoacromegaly conditions: hypertrichosis acromegaloid facial features (HAFF) syndrome. This condition phenotypically overlaps with Cantu syndrome and acromegaloid facial appear...

Pseudoacromegaly or acromegaloidism is used to describe cases where acromegaly-related physical appearance can be observed without any abnormality in the growth hormone (GH) axis. Acromegalic features, in particular coarse facies, together with hypertrichosis, are typical manifestations of one of the pseudoacromegaly conditions: hypertrichosis acromegaloid facial features (HAFF) syndrome. This condition phenotypically overlaps with Cantu syndrome and acromegaloid facial appear...

C-terminal derivatives of hormones commonly have secondary actions. This is a well-established phenomenon, seen in the case of oxytocin, parathyroid hormone and alpha-melanotropin. Such derivatives can either complement or antagonise the action of the parent hormone. Thyroid-releasing-hormone (TRH) undergoes cleavage and cyclisation to form the C-terminal derivative histidinyl-proline-diketopiperazine (His-Pro-DKP). Despite conventional function via the endocrine HPT axis, the...