Modulations of human resting brain connectivity by kisspeptin enhance sexual and emotional functions.

Background: Resting brain connectivity is a crucial component of human behavior demonstrated by disruptions in psychosexual and emotional disorders. Kisspeptin, a recently identified critical reproductive hormone, can alter activity in certain brain structures but its effects on resting brain connectivity and networks in humans remain elusive.

Methods: We determined the effects of kisspeptin on resting brain connectivity (using functional neuroimaging) and behavior (using psychometric analyses) in healthy men, in a randomized double-blinded 2-way placebo-controlled study.

Kisspeptin modulates sexual and emotional brain processing in humans.

Background: Sex, emotion, and reproduction are fundamental and tightly entwined aspects of human behavior. At a population level in humans, both the desire for sexual stimulation and the desire to bond with a partner are important precursors to reproduction. However, the relationships between these processes are incompletely understood.

Efficacy of Kisspeptin-54 to Trigger Oocyte Maturation in Women at High Risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) During In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Therapy.

Context: In vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is an effective therapy for infertility, but can result in the potentially life-threatening complication, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether kisspeptin-54 can be used to effectively and safely trigger oocyte maturation in women undergoing IVF treatment at high risk of developing OHSS.

Setting And Design: This was a phase 2, multi-dose, open-label, randomized clinical trial of 60 women at high risk of developing OHSS carried out during 2013-2014 at Hammersmith Hospital IVF unit, London, United Kingdom.

Associations of coefficient of variation of serum GH with previous radiotherapy, hypopituitarism and cardiac disease in patients with treated acromegaly.

Background: Cardiovascular complications represent the biggest cause of mortality in acromegaly. It is therefore important to optimally stratify acromegalic patients according to disease activity and complication risk. GH is secreted in a pulsatile manner from the pituitary gland, but GH pulsatility is not routinely assessed clinically.

The identification of elevated urinary kisspeptin-immunoreactivity during pregnancy.

Background: Kisspeptin is an arginine-phenylalanine amide peptide hormone critical for reproductive function. Kisspeptin is also abundantly expressed in the placenta, where it has an important physiological role in regulating placental invasion. Accordingly, plasma kisspeptin concentrations rise dramatically during normal pregnancy.