Endocrine Abstracts

Severe insulin resistance (SIR) is an umbrella term which encompasses a number of clinical conditions, all of them rare. This talk will use a case based approach to demonstrate a practical approach to the investigation and management of severe insulin resistance and will include severe insulin resistance secondary to insulin signalling defects and to different forms of lipodystrophy. The aim of the talk will be to provide clinicians with a useful framework to approach the clin...

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Thyroid hormone action in individual target tissues is a complex and tightly regulated process. Thyroid hormones (thyroxine, T4 and triiodothyronine, T3) enter target cells via active transport mediated by specific transporter proteins. T4 is a biologically inactive pro-hormone that is converted to the active hormone T3 by removal of a critical iodine atom. Two iodothyronine deiodinase enzymes (Dio2 and Dio3) are expressed in periphe...

The evolution of molecular genetics has altered our understanding of many endocrine conditions. Some conditions have clear inheritance patterns and others have a more complex genetic influence.Whilst genetic disorders have previously been considered to represent a small minority of the clinical workload, it is now apparent that many clinical conditions have some genetic influence.The purpose of this session is to re-familiarise som...

Background: Kisspeptins (KISS1) and their receptor, KISS-1R, are expressed at higher levels in first trimester placental trophoblast cells than in term gestation. Expression is localised to the trophoblast compartment. In contrast to KISS1 which is only expressed in the villous trophoblast, KISS-1R is also found in the extravillous trophoblast population. Kisspeptins produced by first trimester trophoblast cells inhibited migration. Pre-eclampsia is known to be caused due to d...

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Millions of people were exposed in 1986 to radioactive isotopes in fallout from the Chernobyl accident, with in the first 20 years a large increase in thyroid carcinoma incidence. There is a possible radiation related increase in breast cancer but as yet no general increase in malignancies.The increase in thyroid carcinoma, attributable to the very large amounts of iodine 131 released, was first noticed in children, with a strong relationship between you...

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A variety of rapid responses to steroid hormones have been identified during the last decade. In contrast to classical actions mediated via nuclear receptors with a time lag of hours, rapid actions occur within seconds or minutes via second messenger signalling cascades. Classical genomic actions are well-defined and sensitive to transcription and protein synthesis inhibitors. Steroid hormones enter the cell by diffusion or via transport proteins and bind to cognate receptors ...

Thyroid hormones are essential for skeletal development and bone maintenance. Childhood hypothyroidism causes growth arrest with delayed bone maturation, whereas thyrotoxicosis accelerates growth and advances bone age. In adults, thyrotoxicosis causes osteoporosis and increased susceptibility to fracture. To investigate mechanisms of T3 action in bone, we analyzed T3 receptor (TR) mutant mice. TRα-null (TRα0/0) mice are euthyroid but display delayed ossification with...