Branka Šošić - Jurjević
Period at IMGGE: 1998-1999
Education:
BSc: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
MSc: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
PhD: University of Belgrade
Current position and address:
Senior Research Associate
Department of Cytology
Institute for Biological Research
142 Despot Stefan Blvd.
11060 Belgrade
Serbia
Research interest:
- Numerous advertisements suggest that soy-based diet, and its phytoestrogens (PEs) in particular, provide protection against many chronic diseases.
- However, aside from potential beneficial effects (still under intensive investigation and not fully proven), soybean PEs may also act as endocrine disruptors, by interfering with the function of reproductive system, as well as with other endocrine systems, namely thyroid and adrenal.
- Much more data are currently available for young then for aged animal models.However, the set points of the hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid axis tend to be less sensitive to negative feedback by thyroid hormones in aging individuals. PEs exert goitrogenic effects in young humans and animals, but only if some other goitrogenic factor (i.e. iodine deficiency) is also present.
- My current research interest is to determine potential changes in thyroid homeostasis after soybean PE treatment of orchidectomized middle-aged rats, which we used as a model of andropause. Besides detailed hormonal, immunohistomorphometric and ultrastructural assessment of pituitary TSH cells and thyroid tissue, I also examine changes in gene expression and activity of 5’-deiodinase enzymes in the pituitary, thyroid and liver. Deiodinase enzymes catalyze activation and/or inactivation of thyroid hormones in thyroid and extrathyroidal tissues, thus playing a key role in regulation of thyroid homeostasis.
Additional information: