Endocrine Abstracts

Previous studies demonstrated that the N-terminal peptide of annexin A1 (AnxA1) (peptide Ac2-26) can mimic the anti-inflammatory actions of the full-length protein in various systems. In the current study, we report the effectiveness of the peptide Ac2-26 as an anti-inflammatory agent in a model of human SGBS adipocytes. We have previously demonstrated that plasma AnxA1 protein is significantly inversely correlated with BMI, body fat level and waist to hip ratio. We have also ...

Continuous aerobic exercise improves glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetics (T2D), with greater improvements during exercise in hypoxia. Continuous exercise has been linked with poor adherence. Positive effects with intermittent exercise (IE) with reduced time commitments would have clear benefits. Exercise and hypoxia both increase pro-inflammatory cytokines, potentially reducing benefits of hypoxia. This study aimed to establish the effects of IE under hypoxic conditions in T...

Background: Premature infants are at risk of delayed screening for congenital hypothyroidism (CH), which may markedly affect initial treatment time and neurodevelopmental outcome. Rescreening preterm infants at four weeks (30 days) of life has been recommended to detect cases with delayed TSH elevation.Aim: To examine the performance of the CH screening programme in preterm infants aged ≤32 weeks in terms of timing of the initial Guthrie tests, and...

Hypertension is the most important risk factor in the development of cerebrovascular diseases including vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). Aldosterone is a key regulator of blood pressure, acting via the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in the kidney to promote sodium/water reabsorption. Elevated aldosterone, as in primary aldosteronism (PA) is a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease. In addition to its traditional role, the MR is expressed throughout the brain and vasculat...

Case history: Pre pregnancy: A 31-year-old female with no family history of thyroid disease presented with clinical hyperthyroidism and large goitre with bruit. Graves’ Disease was confirmed: TSH <0.01 (0.35–5.0 mU/l), free T4 53.4 (9.0–21.0 pmol/l), TSH Receptor Antibodies (TRAB) >40 (0–1.9 U/l), TPO 32.2 (<6 U/ml). She started on carbimazole (CBZ: 20 mg BD) and propranolol. She then switched to propylthiouracil (PTU: 150 mg BD) at 2 months due...

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogenous condition that affects approximately 12% of females. The diagnosis can be complex and biochemistry tests are routinely relied upon to help identify hyperandrogenaemia and to exclude other conditions. However, although national and international guidelines advocate the use biochemistry tests, little information is provided as to which tests should be used and which other endocrinopathies should be excluded.<p cl...

Background: Acromegaly is rarely encountered in pregnancy and the lack of data for clinical outcomes limits the development of evidence-based guidelines. We present the case of a pregnancy in a 31-year-old woman with acromegaly due to a pituitary microadenoma.Clinical case: The patient underwent trans-sphenoidal hypophysectomy in 2015 at the age of 28, which was non-curative: post-operative IGF-1 was 533 mcg/l (72–259 mcg/l) (down from 894 mcg/l pre...

Introduction: Measurement of microRNA (miRNA) in aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) tissue from primary aldosteronism (PA) patients show levels of the miR24-1 cluster miRNAs (i.e. miRNAs 24-1, 27b and 23b) are significantly reduced relative to normal adrenal tissue. Our previous studies also show that miRNA-24 directly targets CYP11B2 (aldosterone synthase) gene expression. Circulating miRNAs released into the bloodstream may be diagnostic biomarkers or signalling mo...

Approximately 10% of essential hypertension cases is attributed to primary aldosteronism (PA), where inappropriately high levels of aldosterone are secreted. Almost half of these PA cases result from aldosterone-producing adenoma. microRNAs are single-stranded, short non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. In a previous study, we showed that microRNAs directly modulate CYP11B2 (aldosterone synthase) gene expression and aldoster...

Background: Guidelines from ATA and the Endocrine society suggest the use of fetal thyroid monitoring in maternal Graves’ disease to detect fetal thyrotoxicosis or hypothyroidism in response to maternal thyroid receptor antibodies (TRAb) or thionamide therapy respectively. The literature examining how effective this policy is remains sparse, since these remain unusual clinical situations for most centres. Here we review our experience of scanning for fetal goitre.<p c...