ESPE Abstracts

Background: Craniopharyngioma is a rare, suprasellar tumour, which, together with associated surgery or radiotherapy, results in damage to the hypothalamus and severe obesity in approximately 50% of cases. The multi-factorial mechanisms underlying the development of obesity in craniopharyngioma are not well understood. Hypothalamic damage in craniopharyngioma has been associated with dysfunctional parasympathetic nervous system activity leading to altered gluc...

Background: Obesity represents one of the most challenging public health problems of our century. According to the World Health Organization, there is a need to create reliable monitoring and behavioral systems, and to investigate their effectiveness in preventing childhood obesity.Objective: To evaluate the BigO behavioral indicators in a pediatric population in Greece.Methodology: The study was c...

Introduction: Obesity is a recognised risk factor for raised intracranial pressure in the adult population but is still under-recognised in children and young people. The pathophysiology of raised intracranial pressure in relation to obesity remains unclear. The aim of our study is to investigate the association between idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and obesity in children and young people.Method: Patients d...

Introduction: The diagnosis and treatment of patients with rare diseases is often difficult as most clinicians do not encounter them. Therefore, centralization and collaboration between centers of expertise is necessary. European Reference Networks (ERN’s) such as RareEndoERN provide a platform for this, with one of its main thematic groups having a specific focus on rare growth and obesity disorders. Genetic obesity encompasses a heterogeneous group of c...

Background: C1q/tumor necrosis factor-related proteins (CTRPs) are the recently recognized members of the adipokine family, secreted from adipose tissue. Some types of CTRPs, including CTRP-13, play an important role in energy metabolism in humans. Also, CTRP-13 was found as an anorexigenic factor in experimental studies.Objective: We aimed to investigate serum CTRP-13 levels in obese and healthy children, as well as the...

Background: The MC4R pathway is the principal regulator of mammalian energy balance through its modulation of energy intake and energy expenditure. Variants in genes associated with the MC4R pathway can result in rare genetic diseases of obesity. Clinical data in patients with genetic defects in the MC4R pathway indicate that setmelanotide, an MC4R agonist, can effectively reduce weight and hunger in scientifically rationalized obese subpopulations in which MC...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents one of the main health problems of the 21st century. Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (FGF-23) and its co-receptor, Klotho, play an important role in mineral metabolism, however, little is known about their role in obesity.Objective and Hypothesis: To determine the concentrations of FGF-23 and Klotho in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity.<p class="abs...

Background: The central melanocortin system is highly involved in the control of energy metabolism, receiving and integrating numerous metabolic signals, such as leptin, and biallelic mutations in several genes of the pathway have been reported in severe obesity. However, whether and how heterozygous rare sequence variants (hetRSVs) in genes of this satiety pathway contribute to the development of obesity is poorly explored.Objec...

Introduction: The metabolically healthy obese phenotype (MHOF) defines obese patients who have preserved insulin sensitivity and who do not have metabolic complications: lower risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in adulthood. Recent studies indicate that TMI (kg/m3) estimates the percentage of body fat more accurately than the BMI and it has been proposed to substitute the use of the BMI z-score values by those of the TMI. TMI values ...

Introduction: Monogenic obesity refers to a group of rare, early-onset forms of obesity and accounts for about 7% of patients with severe pediatric obesity. Recent reports demonstrate the emerging role of Src-homology-2 (SH2) B adaptor protein 1 (Sh2b1), an important component in the leptin-melanocortin pathway, as a key regulator of leptin and insulin signaling, with possible roles in the pathogenesis of obesity and diabetes. SH2B1 deletions are found to be a...