Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Therapeutic durability of GLP1-based therapies in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is incompletely understood. Our aim was to explore the therapeutic effects of GLP1 based therapies in patients with T2D.Methods: This was a retrospective study on patients with T2D (n=55) who attend a specialist clinic at UHCW, Coventry, and who had been treated with the GLP1 based therapy, Liraglutide, for at least 6 months. A successful...

Introduction: Glucocroticoids (GCs) which are routinely used in the treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL), found recently to be beneficial in a subset of AML patients resistant to chemotherapy, by promoting leukemia cells apoptosis. Current studies indicate that vitamin D (VitD) deficiency is highly prevalent among AML patients, posing vitamin D as a therapeutic supplementation. Our previous study demonstrated that VitD exerts inhibitory effect on Dexamethasone-induced...

Introduction: Endocrinopathy is frequently seen in systemic amyloidosis and commonly involves thyroid and gonads. We report a case of primary adrenal failure secondary to systemic light chain amyloidosis (AL), involving kidney, liver, spleen, gut, nerves and tongue.Case: A 42-year-old Somalian lady presented with 2-year history of lethargy, febrile episodes and 21 kg weight loss. Investigations showed increase in serum lambda light chain 103 mg/l (5.7&#1...

A 25 year old lady was referred to the endocrine clinic after her newborn baby was noted to have respiratory problems, marked osteopenia and hypocalcemia. Further investigations on the mother showed corrected calcium of 1.11 mmol/L; however she was relatively asymptomatic. Reviewing her history in detail, she was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK 2 years prior to the presentation. She used to get intermittent cramps in her hands, legs and body since the age of 10 in addition...

Introduction: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is associated with insulin resistance, visceral obesity -metabolic syndrome (MS) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Fetuin-A, human protein: α2-Heremans-Schmid glycoprotein is an abundant serum protein exclusively expressed in the liver and has been suggested to act as a link between obesity, insulin resistance (IR), and MS.Aims: A) To determine levels of Fetuin-A in PCOS women. B) To invest...

Aims: Treatment regimes for low testosterone are well established but reasons for treatment change and patient preferences are less well known. We looked at the type of testosterone replacement, subsequent modification of replacement and reason for that change.Methods: Data were collected from the electronic case notes of 50 patients on testosterone replacement for at least 6 months attending endocrine clinics in a University Teaching Hospital.<p cla...

Background: Gestational diabetes (GDM) is characterized by insulin resistance and a pro-inflammatory state, both factors possible related to adipokine expression. In our study we have endeavoured to assess serum levels of insulin-sensitising omentin and pro-inflammatory thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) in GDM.Subjects and methods: The study included 20 women with GDM, diagnosed according to the WHO criteria, age 29.7±5.5 (mean±S.D.), BMI...

Aims/objectives: Glycerol cycling plays an essential regulatory role in metabolism in both health and disease. Aquaporins (AQPs) are a recently described family of water transporting membrane proteins, which contain a subset of members that also have the ability to transport glycerol across the cell membrane. This study sought to investigate the adipose tissue expression profile of AQPs in humans, and to assess the role of AQPs in adipocyte differentiation.<p class="abstex...

Apart from its role in energy storage, adipose tissue produces several hormones and cytokines termed ‘adipokines’ that have wide-ranging effects on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism; and thereby, play an important role in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome. Visfatin is a novel adipokine, levels of which increase in obesity and is adipogenic; properties common to that of leptin. Thus, leptin may modulate visfatin production in adipose tissue. We investigated t...

Visfatin is a controversial molecule secreted from adipose tissue and known to be positively correlated with body mass. Previous reports have suggested that visfatin interacts with the insulin receptor signalling pathway. Due to its high expression in visceral fat tissue and its initial reported insulin sensitising effects it has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, although this link has yet to be well established. Since insulin receptors are ...