Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) describes a group of disorders characterized by enzyme defects in adrenal steroidogenesis. 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) is the most commonly encountered form. The analysis of steroids in pediatric cases requires high-sensitivity assays. A 14-year-old Syrian girl was referred for evaluation of short stature, amenorrhea, and hirsutism. On physical examin...

In vivo studies have shown T cells to be central to the mechanism by which estrogen deficiency induces bone loss, but the mechanism involved remains, in part, undefined. In vitro, T cells from ovariectomized mice produce increased amounts of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which augments receptor activator of NF-kappa B ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclastogenesis. However, both the mechanism and the...

Introduction: Lactation and postmenopausal osteoporosis are two hypoestrogenic physiological states that induce substantial changes in the bone mass and microarchitecture of women. During lactation, the body draws on calcium stores in the skeleton for milk production, resulting in substantial bone loss. In postmenopausal osteoporosis, ovarian hormone deficiency is responsible for bone loss [1,2...

Estrogen deficiency is one of the major causes of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Drynariae Rhizoma is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of bone diseases. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of the total Drynariae Rhizoma flavonoids (DRTF) on estrogen deficiency-induced bone loss using an ovariectomized rat model and osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 c...

Introduction Lactation and postmenopausal osteoporosis are two hypoestrogenic physiological states that induce substantial changes in the bone mass and microarchitecture of women. During lactation, the body draws on calcium stores in the skeleton for milk production, resulting in substantial bone loss. In postmenopausal osteoporosis, ovarian hormone deficiency is responsible for bone loss. What...

Diosgenin is a steroidal sapogenin present in fenugreek and Dioscorea spp. as glycosides (saponins). Diosgenin has already been reported to inhibit osteoclastogenesis and to stimulate osteogenic activity of osteoblastic cells in vitro, and to exert some antiosteoporotic effects in rats in vivo. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of diosgenin administration on the skelet...

To investigate the role of estrogen in flow-induced dilation (FiD) in nitric oxide (NO) deficiency, FiD was examined in isolated gracilis arterioles of ovariectomized (OVX) and OVX rats with estrogen replacement (OVE). Both groups of rats were treated chronically with N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. Plasma concentration of NO(2)/NO(3) was reduced in both groups. Plasma concentration of ...

Studies in rodents have implicated various cytokines as paracrine mediators of increased osteoclastogenesis during estrogen deficiency, but increases in RANKL, the final effector of osteoclastogenesis, have not been demonstrated. Thus, we isolated bone marrow mononuclear cells expressing RANKL on their surfaces by two-color flow cytometry using FITC-conjugated osteoprotegerin-Fc (OPG-Fc-FITC) a...

SHOX is exclusively expressed in the developing distal limb bones of human embryos and in the first and second pharyngeal arches. It works as a promoter for linear growth and as a repressor of growth plate fusion. It was reported, recently, that SHOX overdosage and gonadal estrogen deficiency have led to tall stature due to continued growth. We report, in the present study, a female patient wit...

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is an orexigenic neuropeptide produced by neurons of the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). Because genetic MCH deficiency induces hypophagia and loss of body fat, we hypothesized that MCH neurons may represent a specific LHA pathway that, when inhibited, contributes to the pathogenesis of certain anorexia syndromes. To test this hypothesis, we measured behavio...