ESPE Abstracts

Background: Early TS diagnosis permits early GH start and estradiol (E2) supplementation approaching adult height (AH) at normal age and within a normal range. However, higher age at diagnosis is still a challenge.Objective and hypotheses: The hypothesis from our long-term trials will result in knowledge for personalized treatment in order to obtain a psychological acceptable age at onset of puberty and still an attained AH within normal range...

For decades, the dominant conceptual framework for understanding short and tall stature was centered on the GH-IGF-I axis. However, recent findings in basic molecular and cellular biology and in clinical genetics have uncovered a vast array of other regulatory systems that control skeletal growth and an accompanying vast array of genetic defects outside the GH-IGF-I axis that can cause disorders of linear growth. As a result, the traditional view of short or tall stature that ...

Recent progress in the understanding of growth disorders has further emphasized that growth hormone deficiency is only one of many causes for growth failure and that growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is over-diagnosed in children with short stature. Over-diagnosis of GHD is problematic as it incorrectly labels children with pituitary disease, leads to overtreatment and misinformation of patients and families, and may sometimes prevent doctors from making the correct diagnosis. M...

The mammalian thyroid gland stands out in comparison to other organs as it develops from no less than three independent anlagen that originate in anterior endoderm. The median or central anlage present in the pharyngeal floor gives rise to the thyroid bud or diverticulum that provides progenitors to the thyroxin-producing follicular cells. Bilaterally, the ultimobranchial bodies bud off from the inferior-most pharyngeal pouch. Until recently those structures were considered me...

Retinoic acid receptor agonists can have dramatic negative effects on growth and even induce premature growth cessation and epiphyseal fusion (1, 2). An 11 5/12-year-old, prepubertal girl with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva presented in our pediatric skeletal disorders clinic with the concern of early growth cessation. She had participated in a clinical trial of Palovarotene (“MOVE”, NCT03312634), a retinoic acid receptor-gamma agonist, since the age of 9 10/1...

Retinoic acid receptor agonists can have dramatic negative effects on growth and even induce premature growth cessation and epiphyseal fusion (1, 2). An 11 5/12-year-old, prepubertal girl with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva presented in our pediatric skeletal disorders clinic with the concern of early growth cessation. She had participated in a clinical trial of Palovarotene (“MOVE”, NCT03312634), a retinoic acid receptor-gamma agonist, since the age of 9 10/1...

Introduction: The diagnosis of growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD) is complicated by the low specificity of GH testing, especially in children before and during early pubertal stages. Sex steroid priming reduces false positive results in pre- and early pubertal children. However, only a small number of studies have assessed its efficacy in improving the diagnostic accuracy of GHD investigations.Aim: To evaluate the effe...

Background: Heterozygous Aggrecan (Acan) mutations cause autosomal short stature (ISS) with advanced bone age, early-onset osteoarthritis and intervertebral disc disease (OMIM#165800) in humans. Cartilage matrix deficiency mouse (Acancmd) has a naturally occurring 7 bp micro-deletion in aggrecan gene. Heterozygous Acancmd mice develop postnatal dwarfism with progressing age. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms causin...

Background: During early bone formation, mesenchymal stem-cells condense and differentiate into collagen type 2-expressing chondrocytes which form the cartilaginous bone anlagen. This anlage becomes enclosed by the perichondrium. The perichondrium consists of two layers, the inner cambium layer containing chondrocyte- and osteo-precursor cells and the outer fibrous layer important for mechanical and structural support. While the regulation of the growth plate is increasingly w...

The skeletal research field develops rapidly and has produced several exciting findings in the last year and includes advances in the treatment of rare skeletal disorders and an ever deeper understanding into the fundamental molecular mechanisms that control skeletal development, metabolism, growth, and mineralization. The targeting of the C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) pathway and options to directly antagonize the overactivity of the FGFR3 pathway in achondroplasia continu...