ESPE Abstracts

Background: Turner syndrome (TS) affects 1:2,500 females and results from complete or partial loss of one of the X chromosomes. Typical traits associated with TS include short stature, primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), autoimmune diseases, and cardiovascular and endocrine disorders. Long-term follow-up is needed from the time of presentation into adult life. Several genetic mechanisms have been proposed to account for the development of TS-associated featur...

Key words: Descriptive study, short stature, Growth Hormone deficiency, Growth Hormone analogue, Lebanon, NDS-UMC, Byblos, single center experience.Background: There is a lack of national data concerning growth hormone deficiency treatment in Lebanon. The aim of this study is to describe the height gained under growth hormone therapy of 39 patients diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD).<st...

Background: Local oestrogen production in the brain regulates critical functions including neuronal development, gonadotropin secretion and sexual behaviour. In the mouse brain, a 36 kb distal promoter (l.f) regulates the Cyp19a1 gene that encodes aromatase, the key enzyme for oestrogen biosynthesis. In vitro, promoter l.f interacts with oestrogen receptor alpha (Esr1) and Progesterone receptor (Pgr) to mediate Cyp19a1 mRNA expressi...

Background and aim: Metformin is widely used in Type 2 diabetes, with increasing reports of a potential bone protective role. We investigated the role of AMPK in mediating the effects of metformin on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation to either osteoblasts or adipocytes.Methods: Confluent mouse MSCs (C3H10T1/2), wild type (WT) and AMPK knockout (KO) mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) were treated with metformin(500 μM), AMPK-activator A769662(...

Many factors contribute to the glycemic control in pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The purpose of this IRB approved study was to determine if there was a significant correlation between the ability of pediatric patients with TiDM to accurately recognize and count carbohydrates and their hemoglobin A1C (HgbA1C). T1DM patients aged 12-17 years completed the Koontz PedCarbQuiz (PCQ) . Demographic and clinical data was extracted from the electronic health ...

Background: EPIGROW was a prospective European epidemio-genetic study in children with idiopathic short stature (ISS).Objectives: To identify (1) differences in frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in growth related genes between ISS children and controls, and (2) associations between growth characteristics, IGF status and SNPs in these genes.Methods: Sequence data from EPIGROW was used to determine the difference ...

Introduction: The human adrenal gland originates from the adrenogonadal primordium at around 4 weeks post conception (wpc) and undergoes marked developmental changes throughout the first half of pregnancy. Several key aspects of adrenal maturation are well-established, such as the formation of a large inner fetal zone (FZ) and synthesis of dehydroepiandrosterone, but many other processes contributing to adrenal gland development and function in humans are stil...

Introduction: Ovary development was once considered a largely passive process. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) approaches have allowed us to begin to characterise ovary development in previously unparalleled detail, revealing the process to be complex and, still, little understood. A challenge is synthesising and using these data to advance our understanding of clinical disease. Through a clinically-focused lens, we elucidate novel aspects of the transcriptional lands...

Background: Thyroglobulin (Tg), a protein synthesized uniquely in the thyroid gland, may be elevated in primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH) due to increased TSH drive, absent in true athyreosis and Tg deficiency, and very elevated in some types of dyshormonogenesis.Hypothesis: Serum Tg at the time of newborn screening may reflect the amount of thyroid tissue present in apparent athyreosis and thyroid ectopia, and henc...

Background: Late initiation of GH results in suboptimal adult height for many women with TS. In a landmark, randomized, controlled, clinical trial (“Toddler Turner” study) we showed that 2 y of early GH (ET group) started at 1.98±1.01 y, resulted in height SDS difference of 1.6±0.6 SDS vs. early untreated group (EUT).Objective and hypotheses: It was unclear if early height gains would result in taller adult heights, so patients were f...