Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Excess glucocorticoids are well recognised as a cause of osteoporosis; they inhibit osteoblast function and increase osteoblast and osteocyte apoptosis resulting in thinning of the trabeculae. The circadian rhythm of bone turnover, which is linked to cortisol rhythm, is abnormal in osteoporosis. Furthermore, some studies show abnormal cortisol metabolism in osteoporosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the day–night rhythm of cortisol and to relate cortis...

Reproductive disorders in males that manifest at birth (cryptorchidism, hypospadias), or young adulthood (low sperm count, lower testosterone levels, testicular cancer) may share a common origin and constitute a ‘testicular dysgenesis syndrome’ (TDS). Normal reproductive tract development is programmed by androgens within the ‘masculinisation programming window’ (MPW, e15.5–e18.5-rats; ~8–14 weeks’ gestation-humans). In rats, TDS disorders ca...

Hypothesis: Exogenous kisspeptin-10 (Kp10) enhances pulsatile LH. Research strategy: A first-in-man dosing study of kp10 was first performed. Healthy volunteers and hypogonadal patients were subsequently infused with kp10. Dose titration study Rapid increases in LH with clear dose-dependency (P<0.0001) were observed in healthy men (n=6), with the 0.3 and 1 µg/kg doses being maximally stimulatory (P<0.01). Effect of sex-steroid milieu: LH respo...

Aims/hypothesis: Adrenal incidentaloma (AI) are very common, but optimal management of patients with AI and low-grade excess cortisol secretion is not established. Uncontrolled studies reporting outcomes of adrenalectomy suggest improvements in cardiovascular risk, but all are subject to selection bias, and it is unclear if benefits are due to removal of excess cortisol. We reasoned that short-term use of mifepristone, a rapidly-acting glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist, ...

In neonates, cardiomyocytes exit the cell cycle thus establishing cardiomyocyte number for life. Further growth is through hypertrophy. Factors that advance the timing of the switch from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth may increase risk of cardiac disease in adulthood. Early life administration of glucocorticoids is known to increase risk of cardiovascular disease. We hypothesized that dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, causes precocious cell cycle exit of neonatal...

The renin angiotensin system (RAS) is targeted as means of medical intervention for hypertensive associated complications of stroke, heart failure and obesity. Ultimately, the inhibition of Angiotensin II(ANGII)/Angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor complex has been key in reducing raised blood pressure. Diabetic neuropathic pain (NP) is highly prevalent in the United Kingdom, associated with an increasingly aged population. There is growing acknowledgment that the vascular com...

Background: Enzalutamide is a next-generation androgen receptor (AR) antagonist, used as a daily oral agent, in the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Its suppression of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-2 enzyme has been reported in the literature, leading to hypertension through a relative increase in cortisol concentration at the level of the mineralocorticoid receptors. Enzalutamide is also known to be a potent inducer of drug metabolising enzymes (cyto...

Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) mitochondrial enzyme complex mutations are associated with hereditary paragangliomas and phaeochromocytomas. Of late, there has been more awareness of the development of other tumours in this patient cohort. There is limited evidence of propensity for development of Prolactinomas and other pituitary tumours in patients harbouring mutations in the SDH complex genes. We present three cases attending our center with a diagnosis of prolactinoma and <e...

Adrenal lymphangiomatous cysts are rare, often found incidentally, but can also present in association with abdominal/loin pain or hypertension.1 They have occasionally been reported in association with hormone over secretion of either aldosterone, cortisol or catecholamines. We present a case of a 40-year-old serving soldier who was suddenly awoken with severe left sided abdominal and flank pain. Over the course of several months, he was forced to take time off wor...

Grave’s disease is an auto-immune disorder which responds well to medication and up to half of the patients who take anti-thyroid drugs go into remission. We present a patient with Graves’ disease, who developed acute hepatitis associated with Carbimazole and, re-challenged with Carbimazole when she represented with in fast atrial fibrillation (AF) with relapse of hepatitis. A 75 year-old lady admitted with palpitation and chest tightness. She had a background of par...