ESPE Abstracts

Background and Objective: Obesity is known to affect pubertal timing. However, existing data are still controversial, observing either delayed or accelerated pubertal onset, especially among boys. Herein, we evaluated pubertal milestones and underlying hormonal changes between lean and obese children.Material and Methods: We examined 13,484 events from 4,855 lean (BMI SDS <1.28) and 1,983 obese (BMI SDS > 1.88) c...

Background: The leptin signaling cascade is a crucial regulator of satiety and energy homeostasis in the hypothalamus, comprising extracellular leptin binding to its receptor, phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) and consecutively the generation of a central satiety signal via neuropeptide secretion. We identified three variants in the extracellular domains of the LEPR gene in two children with severe ...

Background and Objectives: Being born small for gestational age (SGA) as well as growth hormone (GH) treatment are associated with a disturbed glucose-insulin metabolism. We aimed to investigate whether SGA patients have a higher risk of developing an impaired glucose-insulin metabolism under GH treatment in comparison to children with an isolated growth-hormone deficiency (iGHD), to children with obesity and a healthy control group.<str...

Background: The course of type 2 diabetes is more severe among children with obesity than among adults. Therefore, children at high risk for glycemic deterioration should be detected early enough to guide preventive (and interventional) clinical management.Methods: We established age- and puberty-specific reference values for 7 different indexes addressing the insulin response during oral glucose tolerance testing upon 4...

Background: We have identified a novel tandem duplication leading to ubiquitous expression of the agouti-signaling protein (ASIP) in a female patient with severe early onset obesity, red hair, tall stature, and insulin resistance (Kempf, E. et al, 2022). Due to the ectopic expression, ASIP - which normally is only expressed in the skin - can interact with the Melanocortin-4-Receptor receptor in the hypothalamus thereby causing the obesity phenotype. <p cla...

Here we identified and characterized a heterozygous tandem duplication at the ASIP (agouti-signaling protein) gene locus causing ubiquitous, ectopic ASIP expression in a female index patient with extreme childhood obesity. In patient-derived adipose tissue samples, we observed pronounced differentiation of stroma-vascular fraction (SVF) cells into adipocytes in the patient compared to normal control cells. We further found reduced mitochondrial maximum respir...

Background: The prevalence of childhood and adulthood obesity as a chronic condition is rising worldwide with comorbidities and impairment of psychosocial development starting already early in life. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a vulnerable period for young individuals with chronic conditions, yet the transition of children with obesity remains poorly studied. We aimed to characterize the transition of children with overweight/obesity from a...

Background/Objectives: Obesity poses a major public health concern. Although studies estimate that the heritability of BMI lies around 40–50%, the underlying genetics are still poorly understood. In monogenic obesity, solitary genetic variations significantly increase obesity risk. We therefore aim to (1) report the diagnostic yield of monogenic obesity using exome-wide data in a large cohort of over 500 individuals and aim to (2) improve future diagnost...