Cancer

Congenital IGF-I deficiency tends to confer protection against post-natal development of malignancies Steuerman, R. et al. Eur. J. Endocrinol. doi: 10.1530/EJE-10-0859

Compared with family members, homozygous patients with congenital insulin-like growth hormone 1 (IGF-1) deficiency and insensitivity to growth hormone (GH) seem to be protected from the development of malignancies later in life, even if the patients were treated with IGF-1. Of 230 patients with Laron syndrome, none developed cancer, compared with 30 cases of cancer observed in first-degree relatives. Patients with congenital isolated GH deficiency were also protected.

Pituitary gland

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome in 83 patients: novel HESX1 mutation and severe hormonal prognosis in malformative forms Reynaud, R. et al. Eur. J. Endocrinol. doi: 10.1530/EJE-10-0892

Reynaud and colleagues screened 83 patients with pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) from 80 pedigrees for mutations in HESX1, LHX4, OTX2 and SOX3 genes. PSIS was found predominantly in men and was rarely familial (5%). Individuals with extrapituitary malformations—the only group to show pituitary hypoplasia—exhibited multiple hormone deficits more often than did those without (87.5% versus 69.5%).

Obesity

Hemojuvelin: a new link between obesity and iron homeostasis Luciani, N. et al. Obesity doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.12

Expression of mRNA of the iron-regulatory protein hemojuvelin is highly increased in adipose tissue of patients with morbid obesity. In liver cells, hemojuvelin acts as a coreceptor of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) to enhance hepcidin expression. Luciani et al. postulate that the same may hold true for adipose tissue, as cultured adipocytes increased their hepcidin expression when challenged with BMP2.

Reproductive endocrinology

Gpr54−/− mice show more pronounced defects in spermatogenesis than Kiss1−/− mice and improved spermatogenesis with age when exposed to dietary phytoestrogens Mei, H. et al. Reproduction 141, 357–366 (2011)

Studies of mutant mice with defects in the reproductive axis should take into account a possible effect of dietary phytoestrogens. Mei and colleagues from the University of Cambridge discovered that mice that lack the kisspeptin receptor Gpr54 show no age-related increase in testes weight or improved spermatogenesis when fed a phytoestrogen-free diet.