ESPE Abstracts

Background: Congenital Hyperinsulinism in Infancy (CHI) is characterised by inappropriate insulin release. We currently attribute hypoglycaemia to β-cell dysfunction because of defects in the ion channel genes ABCC8 or KCNJ11. However, the CHI pancreas is also associated with inappropriate expression of foetal-like transcription factors and enhanced cell proliferation.Hypothesis: As the CHI pancreas bears similarities to the foetal pancreas, we hypo...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI) is associated with inappropriate insulin release from β-cells. This is causally linked to defects in the ion channel genes ABCC8 and KCNJ11 regulating insulin, but little is known about the metabolic support for sustained insulin exocytosis.Objective and hypotheses: We hypothesised that inappropriate insulin release in CHI would require sustained ATP generation by enhanced mit...

Background: Atypical forms of congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI-A) represent a novel subgroup of patients who present later in the neonatal period; have poor responses to medical intervention; an unremarkable histopathology and no known genetic cause of disease.Objective and hypotheses: To compare the expression profiles of insulin and somatostatin in islets from patients with CHI-A, diffuse CHI (CHI-D) and age-matched control tissue.<p clas...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI) is a neonatal disorder of uncontrolled insulin release leading to profound hypoglycaemia. In addition to defects in pancreatic β-cell function, we have recently demonstrated that the CHI pancreas is highly proliferative, with rates of proliferation up to 14-fold higher than in age-matched controls.Objective and hypotheses: As patients require pancreatectomy to alleviate hypoglycaemia, our aim w...

Background: Diffuse congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI-D) mainly arises from mutations in KATP channel genes. In addition, there are also several reports of increased cell proliferation in CHI-D. We hypothesised that the higher rates of proliferation in CHI-D are as a consequence of failure to terminate proliferation in the neonatal period.Objective and hypotheses: To test this we examined the proliferative index (PI) of CHI-D tissue a...

Background: The mechanisms responsible for inappropriate insulin release from β-cells in congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI) have largely focused upon defects in KATP channels. Little is known about insulin biogenesis, the profiles of insulin in insulin-containing secretory granules or whether the impact of KATP channel defects is the same in diffuse- and focal disease.Objective and hypotheses: To define the ultrastruct...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism of infancy (CHI) mainly arises from loss-of-function mutations in the KATP channel genes. As a consequence, insulin release is uncontrolled and causes persistent or recurrent episodes of hypoglycaemia in neonates. In patients with diffuse-CHI (CHI-D) increased rates of cell proliferation has been reported, but the causes of proliferation are unknown.Objective/Hypotheses: To assess the extent of cell proliferation an...

Background/hypothesis: Congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI) mainly arises from mutations in ATP-sensitive potassium channel genes. However, the expression pattern of defects can be markedly diverse. In diffuse CHI (CHI-D) all islet cells express gene defects, whereas patients with focal CHI (CHI-F) only express defects in a localised region of islet cells due to loss of a maternally-imprinted locus. Here, we examined the properties of a novel population of CHI islet cel...