Endocrine Reviews

Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of reproductive-aged women worldwide and is a leading cause of chronic pelvic pain. Despite its high prevalence and substantial socioeconomic burden, the mechanisms underlying endometriosis-associated…

The concept of nuclear receptor (NR) coregulation was proposed nearly 2 decades before it was experimentally validated. According to this model, NRs-executors of a vast array of transcriptional programs-do not act independently but are gove…

Climate change is a major threat to the world's population and is due to global warming from human activities that increase atmospheric greenhouse gas levels-burning fossil fuels, industry emissions, vehicular exhaust, and aerosol chloroflu…

Multiple changes occur in hormonal regulation with aging and across various endocrine organs. These changes are associated with multiple age-related disorders and diseases. A better understanding of responsible underling biological mechanis…

Kisspeptin (KP) and neurokinin B (NKB) are neuropeptides that govern the reproductive endocrine axis through regulating hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuronal activity and pulsatile GnRH secretion. Their critical role i…

Endometriosis is a prevalent gynecological condition associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Despite more than a century of research, the etiology of endometriosis still eludes scientific consensus. This lack of clarity has resulted in…

Recent data suggest an increase in the overall incidence of parathyroid disorders, with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) being the most prevalent parathyroid disorder. PHPT is associated with morbidities (fractures, kidney stones, chronic…

Ovarian cancer (OC) represents a collection of rare but lethal gynecologic cancers where the difficulty of early detection due to an often-subtle range of abdominal symptoms contributes to high fatality rates. With the exception of BRCA1/2 …

Uterine fibroids are benign monoclonal neoplasms of the myometrium, representing the most common tumors in women worldwide. To date, no long-term or noninvasive treatment option exists for hormone-dependent uterine fibroids, due to the limi…

Steroid receptors (SRs) are members of the nuclear hormonal receptor family, many of which are transcription factors regulated by ligand binding. SRs regulate various human physiological functions essential for maintenance of vital biologic…

Reproductive hormones play a crucial role in the growth and maintenance of the mammalian skeleton. Indeed, the biological significance for this hormonal regulation of skeletal homeostasis is best illustrated by common clinical reproductive …

Selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs) are a new class of compounds developed to target the progesterone receptor (PR) with a mix of agonist and antagonist properties. These compounds have been introduced for the treatment of se…

Pelvic endometriosis is a complex syndrome characterized by an estrogen-dependent chronic inflammatory process that affects primarily pelvic tissues, including the ovaries. It is caused when shed endometrial tissue travels retrograde into t…

The midcycle surge of LH sets in motion interconnected networks of signaling cascades to bring about rupture of the follicle and release of the oocyte during ovulation. Many mediators of these LH-induced signaling cascades are associated wi…

Aldo-keto reductases (AKRs) are monomeric NAD(P)(H)-dependent oxidoreductases that play pivotal roles in the biosynthesis and metabolism of steroids in humans. AKR1C enzymes acting as 3-ketosteroid, 17-ketosteroid, and 20-ketosteroid reduct…

All mammalian uteri contain glands in the endometrium that develop only or primarily after birth. Gland development or adenogenesis in the postnatal uterus is intrinsically regulated by proliferation, cell-cell interactions, growth factors …

Extensive evidence suggests that the release of membrane-enclosed compartments, more commonly known as extracellular vesicles (EVs), is a potent newly identified mechanism of cell-to-cell communication both in normal physiology and in patho…

The Endocrine Society's first Scientific Statement in 2009 provided a wake-up call to the scientific community about how environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) affect health and disease. Five years later, a substantially larger…

This Executive Summary to the Endocrine Society's second Scientific Statement on environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) provides a synthesis of the key points of the complete statement. The full Scientific Statement represents …

Steroid sulfation and desulfation are fundamental pathways vital for a functional vertebrate endocrine system. After biosynthesis, hydrophobic steroids are sulfated to expedite circulatory transit. Target cells express transmembrane organic…

The discovery of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) or CRH defining the upper regulatory arm of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, along with the identification of the corresponding receptors (CRFRs 1 and 2), represents a mile…

Progesterone receptor (PR) mediates the actions of the ovarian steroid progesterone, which together with estradiol regulates gonadotropin secretion, prepares the endometrium for implantation, maintains pregnancy, and differentiates breast t…

For decades, studies of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have challenged traditional concepts in toxicology, in particular the dogma of "the dose makes the poison," because EDCs can have effects at low doses that are not predicted by e…

A widely dispersed network of hypothalamic GnRH neurons controls the reproductive axis in mammals. Genetic investigation of the human disease model of isolated GnRH deficiency has revealed several key genes crucial for GnRH neuronal ontogen…

Worldwide, an increasing number of women use oral or injectable hormonal contraceptives. However, inadequate information is available to aid women and health care professionals in weighing the potential risks of hormonal contraceptive use i…