Endocrine Abstracts

In Northern Ireland the annual marching season starts around April/May and can last until the end of September. This is a time when those children and young people with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus who are involved in parades, need advice from the diabetes team regarding the variations in their activity levels. This can be a very delicate subject within the cultural setting, revealing their allegiance for one side of the community or the other and can be very sensitive. As a resul...

Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease characterised by hyperglycaemia due to peripheral insulin resistance and/or insulin deficiency. This may be due to a decline in viable pancreatic β-cells number or β-cell dysfunction leading to impaired nutrient-induced insulin secretion. The most probable causes of these β-cell effects are exposure to elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, glucose and free fatty acids. There are many synthetic and herbal drugs availabl...

The incretin hormones glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) constitute the enteroinsular axis which promotes postprandial insulin secretion. The therapeutic potential of these hormones in diabetes is limited by their rapid inactivation by the enzyme dipeptidylpeptidase-IV (DPP-IV). Here we investigated the acute effects of metformin in the presence and absence of food on DPP-IV activity in type 2 diabetes....

Diabetes mellitus education for children, young people and their families has become more complex in recent years, requiring a solid knowledge of mathematics, problem solving and ongoing adjustments as the child grows. The education at time of diagnosis can be overwhelming for many parents who are coming to terms with this lifelong condition. But we, as diabetes teams also expect them to take on new and alien tasks, not only blood glucose testing and injecting insulin, but als...

Context: In the background population, maternal TSH levels >2.5 mUI/l in late pregnancy have been reported to be associated with breech presentation. This has not been addressed in women treated with levothyroxine.Aim: Our aim was to study the relationship of 3rd trimester maternal TSH with caesarean section (CS) due to foetal malposition in pregnant women treated with levothyroxine since before pregnancy.Methods: We have studi...

Augurin is a putative neuropeptide product of the esophageal cancer-related gene-4. We have previously demonstrated intra-cerebroventricular (ICV) and intra-paraventricular nucleus (iPVN) administration of augurin (71–148) stimulates the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in male Wistar rats. This effect was dependent on the release of CRH. Since CRH is known to inhibit feeding, we hypothesised augurin (71–148) would have similar actions. We therefore investigated th...

Nesfatin is an 82 amino acid peptide identified as a novel hypothalamic regulator of feeding. In rodents, central administration of nesfatin acutely inhibits feeding and chronic administration reduces weight gain. Subsequent research has demonstrated nesfatin is involved in the control of puberty in female rats. During puberty i.c.v. administration of nesfatin stimulates release of LH and FSH but has no effect in adult female rats.We investigated the eff...

Background and aims: Ghrelin is the only known peripheral hormone, which increases food intake. It is released from the stomach and is thought to function as a meal initiator and signal of energy deficit. We used bacterial artificial chromosome transgenesis to generate a mouse model with increased ghrelin expression and production in stomach and brain. These mice exhibited increased circulating bioactive ghrelin and as expected were hyperphagic and glucose intolerant. We hypot...

Interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection has been associated with thyroid abnormalities. We sought to characterise the incidence of this in a cohort of treated hepatitis C patients receiving weekly pegylated interferon therapy in a tertiary Hepatology unit. Patients were scheduled to receive 24 or 48 weeks treatment with monthly thyroid function tests (TFTs). Data was collected from electronic treatment records of 154 consecutive patients and analysed by a single i...

Neuropeptide S (NPS) is a recently discovered peptide shown to be involved in the modulation of arousal and fear responses. It has also been shown that lateral ventricle administration of NPS causes a significant decrease in food intake. Neuropeptides involved in the modulation of arousal have been shown to be involved in the regulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and food intake.Objective: To examine the effect of NPS on the regulati...