ESPE Abstracts

Human growth is a very complex phenomenon that is influenced by genetic, hormonal, nutritional and environmental factors from fetal life throughout puberty. Although the GH-IGF axis clearly has a central role in this process, with specific actions on longitudinal growth, numerous other genes are also involved in determining stature. Indeed, genome-wide association studies have identified >600 variants associated with human height, but this still only explains a small fract...

SHOX deficiency is the most frequent genetic growth disorder associated with isolated and syndromic forms of short stature. Caused by mutations in the homeobox gene SHOX, its varied clinical manifestations include isolated short stature, Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis, and Langer mesomelic dysplasia. In addition, SHOX deficiency contributes to the skeletal features in Turner syndrome. Causative SHOX mutations have allowed downstream pathology to be linked to defined molecul...

Childhood onset of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a clinically heterogeneous condition and defining its cause is important for diagnostics and treatment. The most common genes implicated in the genetic etiology of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) are GH1 (MIM: 139250), encoding growth hormone (GH), and GHRHR (MIM: 139191), encoding the receptor for GHRH. GHD may also result from mutations in genes that encode transcription factors involved in pituitary dev...