ESPE Abstracts

Background: Thyroid hormones are necessary for normal child development. Hypothyroidism, associated with insufficient amounts of free triiodothyronine and thyroxine, may not only cause poor growth rate, but also results in impaired central nervous system development. In Poland, newborn screening for congenital primary hypothyroidism, the incidence of which is reported to be 1:2500- 1:4000 births, has been performed for many years. Secondary hypothyroidism, cau...

Pathway involving insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) plays significant role in growth and development. Crucial role of IGF-1 was discovered inter alia through studies involving deficient patients with short stature, including SPIGFD individuals. Noteworthy, despite disturbances in proper growth, elevated values for selected stem cell populations were found in IGF-1 deficient patients. Therefore, here we focused on investigating role of these cells - very small embryonic-like...

Graves’ disease (GD) is hyperthyroidism associated with organ-specific autoimmune inflammation. GD occurs more frequently in adults than in children, however, pediatric patients are a therapeutic challenge due to cycles of remissions and relapses requiring constant monitoring at every stage of treatment administered. Dendritic cells (DCs) are considered a link between innate and adaptive immunity. DCs as antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are involved in antigen presentatio...

Introduction: The precise pathogenesis of Graves’ disease (GD) still remains unclear, especially in the field of immunological aspects. Thyroid infiltration by reactive T and B lymphocytes plays a crucial role in the course of autoimmune thyroid diseases (ATD). Previous pattern of inflammation process was characterized by the presence of two antagonistic groups of T effector or also called- helper cells: Th1 and Th2. Recently, more attention is paid to T...

Introduction: Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD) become increasingly common in children's population. Pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) bases on coexistence of genetic predisposition and environmental triggers which finally drive to breakdown of immune tolerance. Many mechanisms in human body moderate process of inflammation. While some of them answer for up-regulation, some agents like B regulatory lymphocytes (...

Introduction: The presence of ZnT8 (zinc transporter 8) has been described on the surface of beta pancreatic cells in type 1 diabetic patients and the ZnT8 Ab (zinc transporter-8 autoantibody) has been recently established as a new marker of this autoimmune disease. There are studies demonstrating that ZnT8 may be of importance in some other endocrine cell types. In our study we wanted to verify the presence of ZnT8 in thyroid cells of children and adolescents...

Zinc (Zn) is a crucial trace mineral that regulates the expression and activation of biological molecules such as transcription factors, enzymes, adapters, channels, and growth factors, along with their receptors. Bioinformatics analysis of the human genome discloses that Zn may bind ~ 10% of all of the proteins found in the human organism. This remarkable finding highlights the physiological significance of Zn in molecules involved in cellular processes and thereby i...

Introduction: Thyroid hormone resistance (THR) is a rare syndrome which is characterized by reduced response to thyroid hormones at tissue level. The disorder is caused by genetic mutation in the thyroid hormone receptor. The most common are a heterozygous thyroid hormone β (THRβ) gene mutations. Laboratory tests usually show normal or elevated level of thyroid- stimulating hormone (TSH) and high concentration of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4).<p c...

Introduction: Bloom syndrome (BS) is a rareautosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the BLM gene, located on the long arm of the chromosome 15 (15q26.1). The typical symptoms of the disease are short stature, low birth weight, dysmorphic features including long, narrow face (dolichocephaly), micrognathism and prominent nose and ears. Other characteristic features include a rash following sun exposure, hyper-pigmented areas or cafe-au-lait s...

Introduction: PTH is one of the principal regulatory hormones for calcium and phosphate homeostasis. Hypoparathyroidism, caused by reduced parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentration is characterised by hypocalcemia and hyperphosphataemia. Hypoparathyroidism in children can occur either as part of a genetic syndrome, autoimmune disorder, be acquired secondarily to thyroidectomy or some destructive process of the glands. If the reason for decreased PTH concentration is unknown, it ...