Thyroid
Treatment with parathyroid hormone (PTH) could help prevent bone overmineralization in patients with hypoparathyroidism. Sikjaer et al. randomly assigned 62 patients to receive PTH (1–84) or placebo, in addition to conventional therapy with calcium supplements and vitamin D analogues, for 24 weeks. Patients receiving PTH had increased plasma levels of bone turnover markers, decreased BMD at the hip, lumbar spine and whole body, and less need for calcium and vitamin D.
Reproductive endocrinology
Fetal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) might, in some cases, be associated with partial androgen insensitivity (PAIS). In a study of 28 newborn or infant male individuals with a PAIS-like phenotype, the parents of 11 patients reported environmental or occupational exposure to EDCs during pregnancy. The mean serum estrogenic bioactivity in these patients was significantly higher than in the 17 patients without fetal EDC exposure or in age-matched controls without PAIS.
Nutrition
Among 35,897 women in the Danish National Birth Cohort, the risk of preterm births was reduced in women with a pre-pregnancy BMI <25 kg/m2 who were regularly taking multivitamins (4–6 weeks) before or after conception. The risk of small-for-gestational-age neonates was also reduced among women with preconceptional or postconceptional multivitamin use regardless of pre-pregnancy BMI status.
Diabetes
A study of 1,708 women in the EDEN Mother–Child Cohort suggests that the PPARγ polymorphism that encodes the Pro12Ala substitution and the C allele of the C1431T polymorphism are both associated with increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus.
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In brief. Nat Rev Endocrinol 7, 562 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2011.145
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2011.145