ESPE Abstracts

Background: The leptin signaling cascade is a crucial regulator of satiety and energy homeostasis in the hypothalamus, comprising extracellular leptin binding to its receptor, phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) and consecutively the generation of a central satiety signal via neuropeptide secretion. We identified three variants in the extracellular domains of the LEPR gene in two children with severe ...

Background: Polymorphisms in several genes may be associated with a higher risk of obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).Objective: To examine the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) −238G>A, −1031 T>C and −863 C>A of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNFA) gene; rs738409 C>G of patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 (PNPLA3) gene; +276 G>T and +45 T>G of Ad...

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a role in the central regulation of energy balance and has been associated with body mass index (BMI).Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate potential differences in serum BDNF concentrations in adolescents by gender and BMI, as well as possible correlations of circulating BDNF with the adolescents’ characteristics of metabolic syndrome.Methods: Study part...

Background: Kisspeptin (encoded by the KISS1 gene in humans), originally described as a puberty onset regulating neuropeptide, is involved in many homeostatic systems, including nutrition status, glucose homeostasis, locomotor activity, etc. Thus, in today’s obesity epidemic, kisspeptin is gaining increasing interest as a research target.Aim: To construct an updated interactome of genetic determinants of obesity, including the kisspeptin si...

Circulating Exosomal miRNAs involved in the Pathogenesis of Children Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis.Background: The incidence of children non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) increased rapidly paralleled with the global burden of obesity and diabetes. Although most patients are nonalcoholic fatty liver, there are still a small part of them will progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis. However, the diagnosis of NASH is b...

Background: The placenta plays a key role in regulating fatty acid (FA) transport from maternal to fetal circulation. An unfavourable FA profile in the placenta, reflecting an inadequate nutritional status during pregnancy, may cause changes in placental DNA methylation and negatively affect fetal growth and metabolic health of the offspring.Objectives: We aimed to study the association of an unfavourable placental FA profile with placental DNA methylati...

Background: Among other cytokines, the hepatokine fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and the myokine irisin have been considered potential biomarkers for insulin sensitivity (IS). In adult studies, both of them have been found elevated in insulin resistant states.Objective and hypotheses: Our aim was to study whether serum FGF21 and irisin associate with markers of insulin sensitivity (IS) and serum lipids in 12-year-old children....

Objectives: The obesity in population of children and adolescents is one of the biggest public health problems in word today. Early childhood obesity with cluster of metabolic disorders (insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia and hypertension) are risk factor for cardiovascular morbidly and mortality later in life. Catestatin is a Chromogranin A derived peptide which reduces hepatic/plasma lipids, plasma insulin, improves insulin sensitivity, reduces hype...

Background and aims: A novel bioactive peptide, mitochondrial-derived peptide (MOTS-c), has recently attracted attention as a potential prevention or therapeutic option for obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). MOTS-c profiles have not yet been reported in human obesity and T2DM. We aimed to determine circulating MOTS-c levels in obesity and explore the association between MOTS-c levels and various metabolic parameters. Methods: In this case-control study, 40 obese chil...

Objective: This study is to evaluate the association among plasma adropin, leptin, lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) levels and lipid characteristics in children with obesity.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of children with obesity ranging from 5.5 to 12.5 years old, and age- and gender-matched children with normal weight were collected as control. Height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference of all the participants were mea...

Background: In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between single-gender Korean references for non-high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in childhood.Methods: A total of 5,742 Korean children aged 10–18 years who participated in a national survey were included. The subjects were classified into three groups based on single-gender non-HDL-C levels as follows: <120 mg/dl (desirable), &#8805...

Deletions at 16p11.2 have been reported to be associated with obesity, intellectual disability and various malformations. There are variations in phenotypes associated with deletions of different sizes in this region. Some deletions encompass the SH2B1 gene encoding an adaptor protein involved in leptin and insulin signalling which is believed to be causal for the early-onset obesity of these patients who in addition show a developmental delay (see patient 1). Deletio...

Background: Alström syndrome (AS) is a rare genetic ciliopathy characterized by severe early-onset obesity, hyperphagia, retinal dystrophy, hearing loss, and cardiomyopathy. Rodent studies suggest that cilia play an important role in the leptin-MC4R pathway, which regulates energy balance and body weight. Setmelanotide, a peptide agonist of the MC4R, has led to weight loss in individuals affected by other rare genetic obesity disorders resulting from dysfunction in this p...

Introduction: Hypothalamic obesity (HyOb) is a rare form of treatment-resistant morbid obesity associated with congenital or acquired hypothalamic damage. Its pathophysiology is incompletely understood, with weight gain being attributed to hyperphagia and hyperinsulinaemia. We sought to compare the physiology of various plasma appetite-regulating hormones in HyOb and ‘simple’ obesity (Ob) to improve our understanding of both forms of obesity and identify novel therap...

Background: Elevated serum uric acid (UA) levels are associated with metabolic syndrome (MS), cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adults. However, little is known about usefulness of UA to predict MS in adolescents. As the prevalence of obesity among pediatric population has been increasing, it is important to know the factors associated with the CMRFs to prevent future development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.<p ...

Background: Dietary intake has been shown to influence the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota in adults, however its impact in childhood and adolescence remains uncertain. Moreover, the impact of other lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity, sedentary behaviors, sleep and fitness on the gut microbiota has rarely been investigated.Objective: To explore the correlations between intestinal microbiota composition and meas...

Aim: To determine the efficiency of α-lipoic acid in metabolic syndrome treatment in children.Materials and methods: 44 children with metabolic syndrome are observed. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is made on the base of obesity, arterial hypertension, disorders of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism according to the ATP III (2001) &icy; IDF (2005) recommendations. All patients are randomized into 2 groups: 22 ch...

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the performance of lipid accumulation product (LAP) to predict non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in obese children.Methods: Eighty obese chidren (39 girl) were included in this study (6–18 years). Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), puberty stage, blood pressure (n=28), fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (...

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder. The pathogenesis of this disease has not been clarified so far. It is hypothesized that visceral hypersensitivity observed in IBS is associated with the activation of immune system and development of low-grade inflammation in the intestinal mucosa. Previous studies have shown that hormonal function of adipose tissue in inflammatory bowel disease is disturbed. However, there is only a few repo...

Background: Childhood obesity is one of the most important causes of end-stage renal disease. The onset of obesity-associated renal disease is insidious and asymptomatic. To date available markers do not perfectly mimic kidney injury and may not characterize kidney changes especially in early stages and of renal tubulointerstitium. Tubular changes (KIM-1 and NGAL) are already apparent before the onset of proteinuria or alterations of GFR and thus might represent biomarker that...

Maternal nutrition can have significant long-term consequences on energy homeostasis in the offspring. However, whether resveratrol, with antioxidant and anti-obesity actions, can improve the impact of poor maternal nutrition on offspring metabolism remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that resveratrol intake by dams would protect the offspring against the harmful effects of a maternal high fat diet (HFD). We also determined if resveratrol’s effects are diet and sex d...

Background: Metformin is increasingly used in pregnancy and passes the placenta. Data on long-term effect on the offspring is essentially lacking. We explored possible effects of intrauterine metformin exposure on metabolic health, in 8-years-old children of women with PCOS.Methods: Follow-up of children from the PregMet-study - an RCT comparing metformin (2000 mg) to placebo during PCOS pregnancies. The primary endpoint was Body Mass Index (BMI). Second...

Background: Maternal overweight/obesity during pregnancy and excessive gestational weight gain (GWtG) have been recognized as important early-life risk factors for childhood obesity. We aimed to examine whether maternal BMI at 20 weeks of gestation and excessive GWtG were associated with alterations in body composition and metabolism in childhood in the offspring of primiparous mothers who participated in a randomised controlled trial of exercise regimen during pregnancy.<...

Objective: The aim of this study was to reveal the increase of BMI during later infant related to skeletal maturation in prepubertal obese boys.Subjects and Methods: The subjects were 63 Japanese 10-years old obese boys. Height and weight were measured. Bone age (BA) of left hand-wrist radiographs was assessed using RUS score of the Japanese-standardized Tanner-Whitehouse 2 method. Weight and length or height at birth, 1.5, 3 and 6 years old were obtaine...

Background: In a population of a community-based setting (BMISDS range −3.5 to +4.1), there is a negative linear correlation between childhood BMISDS and pubertal height gain, together with earlier onset of pubertal growth with higher BMISDS for both sexes (1).Objective: To investigate the impact of BMI in childhood on the pubertal pattern of growth for obese children in a clinical setting.Met...

Changes in abdominal fat distribution in the first months of life might be critical for adult metabolic health. Type of feeding might influence the abdominal fat distribution in early life. This study aims to determine whether type of feeding is related to abdominal fat distribution and whether changes in early life are associated with abdominal fat distribution at the age of 2 years.Methods: In the Sophia Pluto Cohort, infants are examined at age 1 and ...

Introduction: Despite improved therapy measures since 2014 the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Swiss adolescence stabilized on 19%. Particular challenges are lack of adherence to therapy in youth who are in difficult life situations or live further from specified centres. Therefore it is essential to find simple and novel therapeutic approaches. But although the number of digital based health information systems increases steadily, the effectiveness in reaching long te...

The main pitfall of weight management programs is effective and safe fitness regimen choice. According to HELENA Study (2013) physical activity readiness is negatively correlated with markers of insulin resistance (IR) and central adiposity in adolescent population. Meanwhile, very little is known about cardiorespiratory fitness effectiveness in relation to hepatic, peripheral and whole body insulin sensitivity (IS).Methods: 64 adolescents aged 13.56+2.4...

Introduction: Childhood obesity is an international pandemic which affects 13% of Canadian youth, and is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in children. While the optimal approach to treat pediatric obesity remains elusive, comprehensive and intensive behavioral interventions which leverage the child’s living environment in order to promote improvements in healthy lifestyles appear promising. The CIRCUIT program (Centre Pédiatrique d’Intervent...

Introduction: Pediatric obesity is a global public health problem that is associated with severe cardiometabolic consequences. Weight management interventions focusing on lifestyles have shown some promising results, but attrition rates are often high and reasons for dropout are poorly understood.Objectives: We aimed toestimate the prevalence, and identify the determinants of attrition among pediatric participants in the first year of a 2-year lifestyle ...

Background: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proinflammatory cytokine associated with obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and atherosclerosis in adulthood. Few studies have been conducted in healthy young children. We aimed to investigate whether IL-6 levels are associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy 4-year-old children.Methods: From a prospective cohort study named Environment and Development of Children (EDC) cohort, a total of 421 sin...

Background: Functional studies on uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) are important to identify potential pharmacological targets which interfere with energy metabolism. However, current cell models of human origin are scarce due to limited tissue availability. In this study, we generated human preadipocytes and adipocytes with an overexpression of UCP1 and studied the metabolic function of these cells.Methods: Human Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome (SGBS) cells w...

Background: Secretion of catecholamines by adipose tissue M2 macrophages was recently proposed as a molecular mechanism leading to activation of brown adipose tissue and heat generation in mice. However, published data are conflicting and it is not clear whether this pathway might play a role in humans. To shed light on this, we studied macrophage polarization in human white and brown adipose tissue and related it to thermogenic gene expression.Methods: ...

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a good biological model of chronic malnutrition. Although some reports according to the gastrointestinal disturbances in response to starvation have been published so far, the exocrine function of pancreas in patients with AN has not been studied thoroughly, yet. There is also no data on the effect of hormonal changes in AN on it. Therefore, the aim of this study is: 1) Evaluation of pancreatic exocrine function in patients with anorexia ne...

Background/Aims: Since the introduction of Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART), including classic In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intacytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), in clinical practice, several studies have addressed concerns regarding the long-term health of the offspring, revealing indications of an adverse cardiometabolic outcome. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) circulating level is significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiov...

Objectives: Abdominal fat has been strongly linked to increased cardiometabolic risk and impaired glucose regulation in adults. Owing to the lack of detailed body composition phenotyping in most previous child cohort studies, the temporal links between abdominal fat accumulation and impaired glucose regulation have not been well established. In this study, we evaluated the associations of abdominal fat assessed by MRI at early infancy (≤21 days after birth) and at 4.5 ye...

Background: Menarche is a significant event in the reproductive life of a woman and represents the late event in puberty indicating that a sexually immature child has become reproductively capable. Even though the timing of puberty onset is approximately conserved in different populations, the puberty starts across a wide range of ages in normal girls. However, in the last decades we are observing that girls are experiencing earlier breast development and earlier menarche, als...

Introduction: Hypothalamus is an important regulator of sleep onset, sleep maintenance and wakefulness as well as appetite control. Thus, hypothalamic damage can lead to both sleep dysregulation and severe morbid obesity. So, sleep apnea may be more prevalent and severe in obesity due to hypothalamic damage in comparison to exogenous obesity.Aim: We aim to compare frequency and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children with hypothalamic and e...

Introduction: Dyslipidemia has been recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Studies showed that the development of atherosclerotic lesions begins in childhood and progresses throughout life. While the prevalence of dyslipidemia in adults has been reported to be 10 times higher in Lebanon, there is no available data on the prevalence of dyslipidemic children in Lebanon.Objectives: This study was conducted to check if a protocol for univer...

Introduction: The main problem of contemporary diabetology is to prevent chronic complications of carbohydrate metabolism disorders according to DM1 and obesity (pre-disposing for DM2). The task is to find simple tools that allow rapid identification of vascular lesions and early treatment intervention.Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to evaluate parameters of CBP in patients with DM1 and obesityMaterials and methods: The...

Aims: To assess trend in the prevalence of severe obesity in a national population-based sample of adolescents and to evaluate the association of severe obesity with major cardio-metabolic morbidities.Methods: Prevalence and severity of obesity was determined among 373,226 Israeli adolescents with abnormal BMI (≥85th percentile for age and sex) examined in an obligatory health assessment at mean age 17.3±0.5 years between 1967 and 2...

Objective: Obesity and its complications affecting many organ systems have been documented. Nevertheless, study conducted on the ophthalmological effects of obesity are scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the changes in the ophthalmological parameters in obese children in comparison to their healthy counterparts.Material and methods: Study included 61 obese and 35 age-sex matched controls. Obesity was defined as body mass index- standard...