Endocrine Abstracts

Almost all tumours display increased activity of components of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway. In particular, activating mutations in the PI3K catalytic subunit, p110alpha, and loss of function mutations of the opposing PTEN phosphatase are amongst the most frequent alterations in human cancers. Our current work aims to understand how loss of PTEN function contributes to tumour development through two related projects. Firstly, we are attempting to add...

Introduction: Anterior pituitary cells are characterised by functional lineages based on the expression pattern of transcription factors. Functional differentiation in the form of pituitary adenomas co-secreting ACTH and growth hormone is very rare. We report a case of multiple cell line pituitary adenoma resulting in acromegaly and ACTH dependent Cushing’s.Case: A 52-year-old woman of Ghanian origin (BMI of 57.5 kg/m2) presented with pro...

Silent corticoptroph adenomas (SCA) are pituitary tumours positive on immunohistochemical staining for ACTH but without clinical evidence of hypercortisolism. They account for 1.1–6% of surgically removed pituitary adenomas. Most tumours are macroadenomas with suprasellar extension present in 87–100% of the cases. They present with mass effects and this is in contrast to Cushing’s disease, which is mostly attributed to microadenomas. Reports suggest that these t...

We report two rare cases of well differentiated thyroid-type carcinoma arising from struma ovarii managed in our institution.Case 1: A 41-year-old female admitted due to abdominal pain and vomiting. Her abdomen was globular with palpable vague mass on lower abdomen. Ultrasound scan revealed 12.5×12.1×8.3 cm heterogenous mass with ascites. Total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salphingo-oophorectomy was done and histopathology results reve...

A 27 years old girl presented with weight gain, hirsutism, fatigue, bruising and striae. On examination she was Cushingoid. On initial assessment, 3 out of 4 24 h urinary free cortisol collections were elevated. 0800 h serum cortisol was 280 nmol/l after 1mg dexamethasone given at 2300 h. After formal 48 h low and high dose dexamethasone suppression tests cortisols were 164 and 34 nmol/l respectively. Basal 0800 h ACTH was 33 ng/l. Given the clinical features and the discrepan...

Primary hyperaldosteronism secondary to bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH) bears striking similarities pathophysiologically to essential hypertension. During stimulation studies to elucidate possible aberrant aldosterone responses in BAH we measured the aldosterone response to 250mcg iv synacthen after 30 and 60 minutes in 7 patients with BAH and in 20 healthy controls. Patients had diuretics withheld for at least 4 weeks and betablockers and calcium channel blockers withheld...

A 59 year old man was admitted with epistaxis. Blood pressure on admission was 213/110 mmHg. Past medical history included hypertension (3 years) and a cerebrovascular accident 5 years previously. Drug therapy included an ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker and thiazide diuretic. He denied thirst, polyuria or weight loss. He was an ex-smoker. On examination he was not Cushingoid. There were no diabetic complications.On block analysis potassium was 2.2mmol/l and ...

Objective We aimed to immunopurify GnSAF, using antibodies with demonstrated GnSAF bioactivity-blocking/binding activity, in order to confirm 2 new candidate amino acid sequences for human ovarian GnSAF (Fowler et al. Mol Human Reprod 2002;8:823-832).Methods Rat antiserum, raised against a 60-70 kDa band of partially purified GnSAF, was immobilised on anti-rat IgG Dynabeads. In addition, a human antibody, derived from a phage display antibody library a...

Introduction. We have previously used a synthetic phage display library to derive single chain (ScAbs) antibodies which bind GnSAF bioactivity in-vitro. However, recovery of GnSAF using the ScAbs, which tended to aggregate and become unstable, was limited. We have therefore engineered these ScAbs into full-length human IgG forms.Methods. CDR regions from soluble expression plasmids for two different GnSAF-recognising ScAbs were amplified by PCR. Two uni...

Background: It is widely believed that increased circulatory concentrations of long-chain saturated fatty acids (LC-SFA) significantly contribute to the death and dysfunction of pancreatic β-cells in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The mechanism by which LC-SFA cross the β-cell plasma membrane has not been fully established. This work aims to characterise the mechanism underpinning this uptake. Ultimately, regulation of LC-SFA entry may maintain β-cell...