Peptide hormones are released from the gastrointestinal tract in response to nutrients and communicate information regarding the current state of energy balance to the brain. These hormones regulate appetite, energy expenditure and glucose homeostasis. They can act either via the circulation at target peripheral tissues, by activation of the vagus nerve or by acting on key brain regions implica...

Peptide hormones released from the gastrointestinal tract communicate information about the current state of energy balance to the brain. These hormones regulate appetite and energy expenditure via the vagus nerve or by acting on key brain regions implicated in energy homeostasis such as the hypothalamus and brainstem. This review gives an overview of the main gut hormones implicated in the reg...

OBJECTIVE Alterations in local concentrations of hormones, affecting directly synovial cells, could be involved in the modulation of the rheumatic inflammatory processes. The aim of present study was to investigate the levels of selected hormones (steroids, peptide and thyroid hormones) in synovial fluid of knee joint of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and control individuals with non-r...

Insulin—a hormone critical for the control of blood glucose—is first synthesized as a longer prohormone. During its maturation, a peptide, C-peptide, is cleaved from the protein, but has been thought to be biologically inert. [HN2], [HN3] Defying the rule that peptide hormones act only by binding to stereospecific receptors, Ido et al. (1) report on page 563 of this issue that C-peptide not onl...

In the last two decades it has become clear that hormones and gene mutations in endocrine signaling pathways can exert major effects on lifespan and related life history traits in worms, flies, mice, and other organisms. While most of this research has focused on insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling, a peptide hormone pathway, recent work has shown that also lipophilic hormones play a...

Gastrointestinal (GI) hormones play an important role in GI secretion, motility, and eating behaviors. It was recently suggested that GI hormones may have a trophic role in GI tract. Here we demonstrate that two principal GI hormones, anorexigenic peptide YY (PYY) and orexigenic ghrelin, affect neural tube development. Chronic administration into the pregnant mice or transgenic overexpression o...

Longitudinal bone growth is determined by the process of endochondral ossification in the cartilaginous growth plate, which is located at both ends of vertebrae and long bones and involves many systemic hormones and local regulators. Natriuretic peptides organize a family of three structurally related peptides: atrial natriuretic peptide, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and C-type natriuretic ...

The incretin hormones, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide and glucagon-like peptide-1, are secreted from intestinal K- and L cells, respectively, with the former being most abundant in the proximal small intestine, whereas the latter increase in number towards the distal gut. Although an overlap between K- and L cells can be observed immunohistochemically or in murine models expressing fl...

Malignant tumours of nonendocrine tissues may produce ectopic hormones. The most likely mechanism is depression of genes which code for hormones. Ectopic hormones are invariably peptides, and each is identical to some peptide product of an endocrine gland. However, the majority of ectopic hormones occur as biologically inactive precursors or subunits and therefore remain occult unless they are ...