ESPE Abstracts

Background: Heterozygous mutations in the Aggrecan gene (ACAN) cause autosomal dominant short stature with bone age (BA) acceleration, and premature growth cessation.Objective and methods: To characterize the phenotypic spectrum, associated conditions and describe response to growth-promoting therapies, detailed clinical evaluation of 73 mutation positive individuals from 16 families different families with heterozygous ACAN mutations was perfor...

Background: The height of children has a Gaussian distribution. Genetics explain an important part of individual variability, but no single genomic variant accounts for more than 0.3% of height variance. At the interface of genetics and environment, epigenetics is expected to contribute to phenotypic variability. IGF1 is an attractive locus to test this hypothesis.Objectives: To quantify the effect of CG methylation of IGF1 promoters on height.<p cla...

Background: The growth and IGF1 responses to GH treatment show a large variation across children with idiopathic short stature (ISS). Compliance and GH regimens are important determinants. The d3 variant of the GH receptor (GHR) is a significant genetic predictor. The role of individual epigenetics had not been studied. The IGF1 locus is an attractive candidate where CG methylation could influence GH action.Objectives: To study GH effects on a) IGF1 gene...

Background: DLK1 or PREF1 is an imprinted gene highly expressed from the paternal allele in embryonic tissues and placenta. It has been recently implicated in adipose tissue expansion and diabetes development. The human rs1802710 polymorphism (SNP) in DLK1 gene has been associated with early-onset extreme obesity but its role determining growth is unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study the preferential paternal transmission...

Background: The phenotypic effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may depend on their parental origin. PLAGL1 is an imprinted gene expressed from the paternal allele in placenta that is associated with fetal growth, transient neonatal diabetes mellitus and postnatal growth disorders. The mechanisms whereby PLAG1 regulates fetal growth are, however, unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study if the preferential paternal transm...

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the promotor and 5’UTR of the transcriptional factor, ZBTB38, are associated with adult height and idiopathic short stature although their precise auxological effects have not previously been described. In addition, the molecular mechanisms through which ZBTB38 affects growth have not been fully elucidated but potential downstream mediators are suggested to include MCM10 or IGF2.Objectives: <...