ESPE Abstracts

Background: In children, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is generally sporadic and may, less frequently, be part of an undiagnosed hereditary tumor predisposition syndrome (HTPS). Somatic molecular testing is useful to understand tumor etiology and behavior, predict prognosis, and possibly guide development of novel treatment strategies. RET/PTC fusions were found to be associated with an increased risk of invasive disease. The aims of our study were to analyze...

Background: Being born small for gestational age (SGA) is an associated condition to nonspecific 46,XY DSD (without molecular diagnosis and with no specific disorders of undermasculinization). However, the underlying mechanism of the relationship between the presence of genital abnormalities and intrauterine growth restriction is unknown. The GH-IGF system is crucial for sex differentiation in mice and in humans, members of this system were detected in embryon...

Background: The SRY protein is a transcription factor that contains a high mobility group (HMG) homeobox domain which possesses sequence-specific DNA binding activity and regulates other genes involved in male sex determination pathway. The majority of the identified mutations occurred within the HMG-box motif. There are few reports of pedigrees with familial transmission.Objective and Hypotheses: To describe a paternally transmitted novel SRY mutation w...

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are those congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical. The aim of this study was to characterize the histology of 46,XX DSD prepubertal gonads. We studied 25 gonads of fourteen 46,XX DSD patients. The age of biopsy/gonadectomy was 1.17 (0.08–4.17) years (median and range). Molecular studies confirmed the absence of SRY by PCR and/or MLPA in blood samples of all patients and i...

Background: In Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a hereditary disease in which AR mutations in 46,XY patients present with partial (PAIS) or complete (CAIS) defects in virilisation.Objective and hypotheses: The aim was to analyze the effect of lack of androgen action in germ cell (GC) health and survival along postnatal development, previous to Sertoli cell (SC) pubertal maturation.Method: The histological features and quant...

Background: Carriers of germline DICER1 mutations are predisposed to a rare cancer syndrome, the DICER1 syndrome, associated with tumors such as pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB), ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors (SLCT), multinodular goiter (MNG), cystic nephroma (CN), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) or primitive neuroectodermic tumor. DICER1 is involved in the generation of microRNAs (miRNAs), short, double-stranded, non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression at ...

Introduction: Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by absent, thin, or interrupted pituitary stalk, absent or ectopic neurohypophysis, and hypoplasia or aplasia of the adenohypophysis. It often accompanies midline abnormalities and diverse endocrine dysfunction, with its etiology largely unknown. Recent reports have linked mutations in the ROBO1 gene to PSIS.Aim: To des...

Background: Hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets (HHR) comprises a group of rare disorders characterized by renal phosphate wasting and impaired vitamin D metabolism. Numerous genetic defects can underlie this condition, with the X-linked dominant form (XLHR) being the most prevalent (1 in 20,000 individuals) resulting from inactivating variants in the PHEX gene.Aim: To characterize a large cohort of 99 argentini...