ESPE Abstracts

Central precocious puberty (CPP) results from premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis through the activation of the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). Gain-of-function mutations of the KISS1 and KISS1R genes or loss-of-function mutations of the makorin RING-finger protein 3 (MKRN3) have been linked with CPP. Moreover intronic and intragenic variants harbouring the imprinted loci of MKRN3-MAGEL2 and DLK1 g...

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterized by severe hypophagia, high levels of physical activity, harsh weight loss and an intense fear of weight gain. It has the highest mortality rate among psychiatric illnesses and, due to the unknown underlying neurobiology, it is challenging to treat. Agouti-related protein (AgRP) neurons, which are localized in the arcuate nucleus in the hypothalamus, are both necessary and sufficient or feeding in adult animals. To uncov...

Objectives: Several different pathogenic mechanisms may converge on a final common pathway to produce the phenotype of delayed pubertal timing. In our cohort of patients with familial self-limited delayed puberty (DP) we have demonstrated mutations in IGSF10 leading to mis-regulation of the embryonic migration of GnRH neurons (Howard et al, EMBO MM 2016). We aimed to discover novel genetic mutations in pathways regulating GnRH neuronal migration and developme...

Kallman syndrome is defined by the association of anosmia due to an agenesis of the olfactory bulbs and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism due to a GnRH deficiency which is currently explained by a deficit of GnRH neuron migration from the olfactory placode toward the hypothalamus. In fact, the X-linked form of KS is due to loss of function mutations in ANOS1 which encodes an extracellular protein (ANOSMIN) interacting with cell membrane heparin sulfate proteoglycans but a...

Background: Kisspeptins, ligands of G protein-coupled receptor 54 (GPR54) encoded by the KiSS-1 gene, have recently emerged as key players of the gonadotropic axis. It was found that KiSS-1/GPR54 system plays an important role in the neuroendocrine control of gonadotropin secretion, brain sex differentiation, puberty onset and fertility. It is important to know if the kisspeptin serum level could be used as a diagnostic criterion to the stage of puberty or impairment of it in ...

Introduction: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex hypothalamic disorder, causing hypotonia, intellectual disability (ID), pituitary hormone deficiencies and hyperphagia. Up to 4% of young patients with PWS die unexpectedly, every year. The mean age of reported deaths in PWS is 29.5 years; 20% of deaths even occur below age 18 years. Mortality data show that more than 50% of deaths are of cardio-pulmonary origin. Morbid obesity, diabetes and hypertension are strong risk fa...