ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

To read the full abstract: Nat Commun 2018;9.400Pheromones play a crucial role to identify potential mates and sexual motivation in mice. These molecules are detected by a specialized circuit which initiates in the nasal septum and then relies on GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus in a sex-dependent manner. Female pheromones induce LH/testosterone release in male mice whereas male pheromones i...

To read the full abstract: PLoS Biol 2018;16:e2004399The hypothalamus plays a central role in the control of numerous physiological pathways and received afferent pathways from the brain and from the periphery. For instance, body temperature changes in peripheral tissues are conveyed to the hypothalamus via the bloodstream. An increase of temperature within the hypothalamus results in an i...

To read the full abstract: Nature 2017;548:52-57The central nervous system contributes to ageing. The hypothalamus seems to be particularly important in this process. Recent studies have demonstrated a link between ageing and a decrease of neurogenesis in the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle in the brain. Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSC) reside in those regions in ...

To read the full abstract: Hum Mol Genet 2017;26:1992-2005Mutations in human DISC1 have been previously associated with mental illness, such as schizophrenia and depression. Moreover, DISC1 has been shown to be important in regulating CNS neurogenesis through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. However the mechanism by which DISC1 causes mental illness is not known. In this elegant work, Eachus <...

To read the full abstract: Elife 2018;7. pii: e33318Here, Cheung et al. use sophisticated tissue specific genetic ablation in pituitary cell lineages to uncover an unexpected differential sensitivity of NOTCH activation signalling pathway in different cell lineages during the embryonic murine pituitary development. These findings are important as they further demonstrate the importance of NOTCH pat...

To read the full abstract: Development 2017;144:3289-3302Aberrant development of the anterior pituitary can lead to congenital hypopituitarism (CH) in humans and hence understanding how this organ develops is critical to understand CH. The anterior pituitary develops in intimate contact with the prospective hypothalamus, which secretes growth factors that are required for the pituitary gland to grow...