ESPE Abstracts

Objectives: We describe 5 pedigrees with a novel phenotype including GHD associated with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) and investigate the underlying molecular basis.Patients and Methods: 6 Turkish patients (5F, 1M) born to 5 consanguineous pedigrees with severe GHD were identified. All females had POI; the male had normal puberty. All had severe postnatal growth retardation (height -4.4 to -8.9 SDS at presentation...

Background: Thymus transplantation is undertaken for conditions associated with severe immunodeficiency. These comprise a number of genetic and syndromic associations including 22q deletion syndrome, CHARGE association, diabetic embryopathy, and other rarer conditions. Autoimmune thyroid dysfunctions (Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' Disease) are described in the literature as the most common autoimmune disease after thymic transplant.<p class="...

Introduction: Peripubertal children with delayed puberty frequently display a poor growth rate prompting endocrine work-up. Whether priming with sex steroids should routinely be performed in these patients to improve specificity of growth hormone stimulation tests (GHST) is unclear. Treatment with sex steroids in constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP) is also debated.Patients and Methods: This multicenter retr...

Introduction: Hyperinsulinaemic Hypoglycaemia (HH) is one of the commonest causes of hypoglycaemia in infancy. It is characterised by hypoketotic, hypofattyacidaemic and hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. The molecular basis of HH includes defects in pathways that regulate insulin release; to date, 12 genes have been associated with monogenic forms of HH (ABCC8, KCNJ11, GLUD1, GCK, HADH1, UCP2, MCT1, HNF4A, HNF1A, HK1, PGM1, PMM2). However, no genetic aetiology has been...

Background: Thymus transplantation is undertaken for conditions associated with severe immunodeficiency. These comprise a number of genetic and syndromic associations including 22q deletion syndrome, CHARGE association, diabetic embryopathy, and other rarer conditions. These conditions may also be associated with hypoparathyroidism and patients are therefore at risk of severe hypocalcaemia. There are no published guidelines for calcium replacement in these patients during the ...

Background: A mutation in EIF2S3 (NM_001415; Xp22.11) was previously associated with microcephaly and developmental delay in a single pedigree. EIF2S3 encodes the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 subunit 3 (eIF2γ), the largest of three EIF2 subunits. EIF2 initiates protein synthesis by forming a ternary complex with GTP and initiator methionyl-tRNA which then binds to the 40S ribosomal subunit, enabling scanning of mRNA from the 5′ end to...

Background: SOX2 is an early developmental transcription factor implicated in pituitary development; heterozygous SOX2 mutations have been reported in patients with a severe ocular phenotype and hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH) with/without associated abnormalities. SOX2 physically interacts with β-catenin, a member of the Wnt-signalling pathway, via its carboxyl-terminus and it represses in vitroβ-catenin mediated activation.<p class="abstex...

Background: Wolfram syndrome (WS or DIDMOAD) is a rare (prevalence of 1/770,000) autosomal recessive multi-systemic neurodegenerative disease, characterized by non-autoimmune diabetes mellitus (DM) and optic atrophy. Additional features include diabetes insipidus (DI), sensorineural deafness, urinary tract abnormalities, ataxia, psychiatric illness, and other endocrine disturbances leading to death in mid-adulthood. This syndrome is caused by recessive mutations in the wolfram...

We characterised the phenotype of PHP patients at two UK tertiary care centres and investigated phenotype-genotype correlations.Method: Retrospective review of case notes for patients with PHP at two UK tertiary care centres.Results: 55 patients, from 41 kindreds, were identified; 32 with PHP1a, 23 with PHP1b. The PHP1a cohort (56% female, 69% White), currently aged 16.7+/-10.6 years, presented at ...

Background: When a baby presents with atypical genitalia, the most important diagnosis to consider is 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD, CAH, 46,XX). However, primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) can also occur in 46,XY children with differences in sex development (DSD), although this is less common. Known causes of 46,XY DSD-PAI include high blocks in steroidogenesis (STAR, CYP11A1); steroidogenic enzyme defects (HSD3B2, CYP17A1</...