ESPE Abstracts

Background: Low birth weight and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with long-term effects on life.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study, we followed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weight (bw) differences due to twin–twin transfusion syndrome from birth until after puberty. We propose that differences in birth weight lead to differences in hormone levels with effects on personality and cognitive functi...

Background: Low birth weight and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with long-term effects on life. The influence of intrauterine conditions on personality might be underestimated.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study we followed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weight (bw) differences due to twin–twin transfusion syndrome (ttts) from birth until puberty.Method: 23 pairs of monozyg...

Background: Children born small-for-gestational-age (SGA) especially when they experience rapid catch-up growth have an increased risk for obesity and metabolic disturbances later in life.Aims and objectives: Little is known about the effect of catch-down (c-d) growth and its effect on metabolic parameters in children born large-for-gestational-age (LGA).Patients and methods: 101 pre-pubertal children with a birth-weight and/or len...

Background: Alterations of pre- and early postnatal growth can have long lasting impact on adult height, body composition and metabolic health throughout life. In monozygotic twins discordant for prenatal growth due to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), we previously demonstrated lower cord blood IGF-I concentrations and earlier pubertal maturation, indicative of prenatal programming of endocrine systems, to be linked to reduced final height of the form...

Background: Low birth-weight (bw) and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with a subsequent impact on the endocrine system. However, very little is known about the impact on thyroid function.Objective and hypotheses: We observed genetically identical twins with intra-twin bw-differences from birth until adolescence to objectify the impact of a lower bw on development and health in later life.Method: Bw-difference of...

Background: Low birth weight (bw) and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with a subsequent impact on the endocrine system. However, very little is known about the impact on thyroid function.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study we observed genetically identical twins with intra-twin bw-differences from birth until adolescence to objectify the impact of a lower bw on development and health in later life....

Background: Low birth weight, unfavourable intrauterine conditions, and post-natal catch-up growth are associated with a subsequent impact on growth and pubertal development. Start of puberty is genetically determined but might be altered due to environmental influences.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study we observed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weight (bw) differences from birth until puberty.Met...

Background: Low birth weight, unfavourable intrauterine conditions, and post-natal catch-up growth are associated with a subsequent impact on growth, pubertal development, and metabolic disturbances later in life. Although the start of puberty is genetically determined it might be altered due to environmental influences.Objectives: In a longitudinal study (birth to final height) we observed growth and pubertal development of genetically identical twins b...

Background: Low birth-weight and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with a subsequent impact on the endocrine system. Many studies reported hyperandrogenaemia and precocious adrenarche in children born small for gestational age (SGA). However, little information is available on steroid profiles in these subjects.Objective and Hypotheses: We followed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weigh...

Objective: Although low birthweight (bw) and unfavourable intrauterine conditions have been associated with metabolic sequelae in later life, little is known about their impact on glucocorticoid metabolism. We studied monozygotic twins with intra-twin bw-differences from birth to adolescence to analyse the long-term impact of bw and catch-up growth on glucocorticoid metabolism.Methods: 46 monozygotic prepubertal twin-pai...