Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Beta-endorphin (beta-ED) levels were evaluated in blood and seminal plasma of men with infertility due to varicocele, obstructive and nonobstructive azoospermia, and idiopathic oligoasthenospermia. The relation of this opiate to serum levels of gonadotropins, prolactin, testosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate has also been investigated. beta-ED levels in seminal plasma were significantly higher than in blood plasma (p less than 0.001) in all persons studied. No statistically significant differences were found for beta-ED concentrations in semen or blood among any of the infertility situations studied. Nor were significant correlations observed between the concentration of this opiate and that of gonadotropins, prolactin, and androgens. The measurement of beta-ED in semen has little value in the differential diagnosis of male infertility. Nonetheless, its presence in high levels in semen must have some unknown function. Possibly, it comes from the various sites of the male reproductive tract, since no significant differences were found between obstructive and nonobstructive azoospermias.
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PMID:Beta-endorphin and male infertility. 294 70

The last few years have seen the isolation, characterization and synthesis of two new hypothalamic peptides, the growth-hormone releasing factor (GRF) and the corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF). GRF selectively stimulates pituitary growth hormone. It is interesting to note that GRF was isolated from two pancreatic tumors which were responsible for an acromegalic condition in the two patients. Hypothalamic GRF (1-44) has been found to be identical to this pancreatic GRF. CRF was isolated first from ovine hypothalamus and later characterized in several species and in the human. CRF specifically stimulates the secretion of ACTH and of beta-endorphins, and other fragments of the common precursor named pro-opiomelanocortin. Chemical synthesis of analogues of hypothalamic peptides, and in particular of GnRH (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone), has made available new molecules which form agonists as well as antagonists. After a short period of gonadotrophin stimulation GnRH agonists induce desensitization of the pituitary and a decrease in secretion of the gonadotrophins and the sex steroids by the gonads. Their usefulness is presently being tested in several conditions such as prostate cancer, endometriosis, breast cancer and idiopathic precocious puberty, and as a contraceptive method. On the other hand, pulsatile administration of GnRH restores deficient reproductive functions in certain conditions such as anovulation or azoospermia.
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PMID:[Hypothalamic factors: current findings]. 300 38