ESPE Abstracts

RANKL was identified as an osteoclast differentiation factor as well as a T cell-derived stimulator of dendritic cells. The essential role of RANKL in osteoclastogenesis has been genetically proven in both mice and humans. In addition, RANKL was shown to play a critical role in various tissues including the thymus, gut, and mammary gland. The fully human monoclonal antibody against RANKL, denosumab, has been successfully utilized and approved for the treatment of bone metastas...

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Biological systems are invariably dynamic, with both stochastic interactions and deterministic processes across multiple timescales ensuring the maintenance of homeostatic regulation and allowing us to adapt to changes in both internal and external environments. It is no surprise therefore that the stress responsive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis shows multiple levels of regulation which come together to regulate oscillating levels of glucocorticoid secretion with b...

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Puberty is under the precise control of sophisticated regulatory networks, which integrate a large number of endogenous and environmental signals, including metabolic and nutritional cues. Thus, puberty onset is tightly bound to the state of body energy reserves, and deregulation of energy/metabolic homeostasis is often associated with alterations in the timing of puberty. However, despite recent progress in the field, our knowledge of the specific signals and central molecula...

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Pituitary gigantism is a rare disorder caused by excess of GH/IGF-1 due to GH-secreting lesions, that occurs before epiphyseal closure leading to increased linear growth. These cases have more aggressive features of pituitary disease than sporadic acromegaly, including a younger age at disease onset and larger tumor size, and they can be challenging to treat. Over the past two decades several molecular defects that cause GH-secreting pituitary adenomas have been identified, in...

In 2018, the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) included 132 publications in the artificial pancreas (AP) field, and in the first 6 months of 2019, new 80 papers were published. This continues a trend of over 100 scientific publications per year since 2015 and confirms the growing prominence of the AP for the treatment of diabetes. This presentation recounts briefly the technologies enabling the AP, including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and automated control algorit...

The development of obesity begins early in life. From our large observational studies we know that the age between 3-6 years appears critical for development of obesity in children and once established, childhood obesity regularly persists into adulthood leading to premature morbidity and even mortality. In addition to the mere expansion of fat mass with developing childhood obesity, there are alterations in adipose tissue function such as adipocyte hypertrophy, inflammation a...

The obesity pandemic is likely multifactorial, comprised primarily of reduced caloric expenditure and increased caloric intake secondary to dietary changes, coupled with host genetic predisposition and other environmental exposures. The role of the host microbiome in metabolism, energy expenditure, and metabolic disorders, including obesity, has more recently come under scrutiny as well. For example, several perturbations in the host microbiome have been associated with obesit...