ESPE Abstracts

Background/Objective: Energy balance is preserved through the exchange between body weight and adipose tissue across the multi-faceted complex network that is composed of the sensorial, metabolic, and neuroendocrine circuits. Olfactory control of the process is maintained through the central structures that include the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, together with the interplay between the olfactory bulbus (OB) and adipose tissue. Although the interaction of the ...

Background/Objective: The olfactory bulb (OB) and pubertal development have a close relationship as they share a common ontogenetic origin. The aim of this study is to analyze the potential relationship between the precocious puberty in girls as a sign of early pubertal timing and their OB volume as an indicator of its functional activity.Design: In the study group (n=125), OB volume, pituitary height, body ...

Context: Olfactory bulb (OB) and eyeball size change depending on age and puberty. There is well-established trade-off between sensory structures of brain such as eye and olfactory bulb.Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the potential reciprocal changes between OB and eyeball volumes (EV) in girls with precocious puberty (PP), as a sign of early pubertal onset.Design: A...

Background: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the site where proteins are folded. Perturbation of ER homeostasis activates a set of ER-to-nucleus signaling reactions known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). Metabolic stress causes UPR activation which contributes to the development of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. As UPR can be activated by nutrient and oxygen starvation, we postulated that intrauterine growth restriction may trigger UPR signaling and thereby con...

Background: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) participates in so many cellular tasks that trouble can ensue when it stops working properly, including β cell death in type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Despite the underlying importance of ER dysfunction in β cell death during the progression of diabetes, there is no effective treatment targeting the ER due to the complex etiologies of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.Objective and hypotheses: Our strategy ...

Background: Childhood obesity is commonly associated with signs of endothelial dysfunction, characterized by impairment of insulin signaling and vascular NO availability. Recently both these features have been associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, however the role of ER stress in the mechanism/s leading to vascular dysfunction in childhood obesity remains still to be established.Objective and Hypotheses: To evaluate ER stress and insulin-sti...

Over the past decade, work from our research group has demonstrated that over-expression or activation of the chaperone protein heat shock protein 72 (HSP72; the inducible form of the 70kDa family of heat shock proteins) in skeletal muscle reduces obesity-induced insulin resistance (for review see). These findings led to the development of the small molecule activator of HSP72, namely BGP-15 which, in pre-clinical studies, has proven to be effective in the treatment of several...

Context: The mouse ERα−/− knock-out model and rare human ESR1 gene mutations identified to date have demonstrated crucial role of ERα in control of energy homeostasis and glucose metabolism. Subjects with ERα deficiency show features of estrogen resistance (ESTRR) with continuous linear growth in adulthood.Patient: We describe a 20-year-old female, with unknown family history, who presented...

Background and Aim: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa’s) are the standard medical treatment for precocious puberty. Studies on their side effects in adults have shown that these drugs can cause changes in electrocardiography (ECG) along with some cardiovascular effects; however, the number of studies on children is limited. This study aims to investigate the effect of these drugs on ECG parameters in children diagnosed with central precocious puber...

Background: There are two liquid formulations of Levothyroxine currently in use in Italy: one containing ethanol (Tirosint®) and the other ethanol-free (Tifactor®). The aim of our study is to compare the two liquid formulations of Levothyroxine in the first six months of treatment in newborns affected by Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH).Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 156 patients treated with the ethanol-cont...