ESPE Abstracts

In view of the high prevalence of obesity in childhood and adolescence treatments of obesity in young ages represent a major burden to the health care systems around the world. However, still treatments are ineffective largely, and little is being done to organize effective prevention and to enhance societal understanding of the complex etiology of the disease. In more developed and industrialized countries, and that is in all of Europe and in North America as well as in Austr...

Early life events can profoundly affect an individual's metabolic phenotype, inducing adaptive responses that may be protective in utero but potentially disadvantageous for long-term health. Indeed, environmental cues during sensitive windows of development may result in altered growth and lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic alterations later in life. In this talk, I will discuss several models of exposure to early life events, which were the top...

Background and Objectives: N-terminal-pro hormone Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) and hs-Troponin T (hs-TnT) are commonly used cardiac biomarkers despite lacking a deeper understanding about influencing parameters especially in the healthy pediatric population. We previously found associations between NT-proBNP and hs-TnT and a child´s age, sex, pubertal status, Body Mass Index (BMI) and serum lipid levels. Subsequently, we explored associations wi...

Background and Aim: Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN cause PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome (PHTS). Pediatric patients frequently develop lipomas. PTEN antagonizes the growth promoting PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. There is no current treatment option except surgery. Treatment attempts with the mTORC1 inhibitor Rapamycin could not reverse lipoma growth. Recently, lipomas associated with a related syndrome caused by mosaic activating PI3K mutations (P...

Background: Glypican-4 is a heparan sulphate proteoglycan. In addition to a membrane-bound glypican-4, a soluble form exists. Human and rodent adipose tissue were identified as source of circulating glypican-4. Glypican-4 serum levels are associated with obesity and insulin resistance, as in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Because of its positive effect on insulin sensitivity, glypican-4 might play a role in the development of obesity, insulin resistance, and T2D. We a...

Background: Serious mental and physical retardation are sequelae of untreated congenital hypothyroidism. These complications have become rare since the introduction of neonatal screening in Germany.Case report: Here we report about a girl with congenital hypothyroidism, who suffered from extreme short and thickset stature, rough facial features and straw-like hair at the age of 12 years. She had been detected in newborn screening with a TSH of 132 IU/ml....

Background: More than 20 gene loci are known to cause monogenic neonatal diabetes today. A definite mutation can be found in 65–70% of all cases. Mutations in the ATP sensitive potassium channel can frequently be treated by sulfonylurea. Glibenclamide is on of the drugs known to inhibit the bile salt export pump (BSEP). However most drug induced cholestasis cases are reported in adults.Objective and hypotheses: Glibenclamide is used frequently to tr...

Background and Aim: Pediatric patients with germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN (PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome, PHTS) frequently develop lipomas. PTEN antagonizes phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling, which can induce adipogenesis upon activation through insulin. The PI3K downstream target AKT can deactivate FOXO1 via phosphorylation, initiating the expression of the lipogenesis activating transcription factor SREBP1. To study t...

Background: Pediatric patients with germline pathogenic variants in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN frequently develop cancer and adipose tissue overgrowth in the form of lipomas. While the canonical function of the phosphatase PTEN is to antagonize the growth promoting PI3K pathway, non-canonical PTEN functions e.g. in the nucleus are less well described. To uncover the mechanisms leading to lipoma formation related to PTEN mutations, we previously performed R...

Background: Obesity is characterized by an increase in fat mass caused by an increase in adipocyte number and adipocyte size and is often associated with adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction contributing to metabolic impairment. It is suspected that adipocyte progenitor cells play an important role during healthy and obesity-related AT expansion. Studies in adults showed that the stroma vascular fraction (SVF) of AT is composed of different progenitor cell subpopul...