ESPE Abstracts

Childhood obesity has become a major health issue in the last decades. Moreover, identifying a simple, feasible, and valid screening tool to select subjects at higher risk for obesity-related comorbidities has become a challenge. Current guidelines reccommend to use BMI percentile for overweight and obesity diagnosis. However, waist-to-height ratio (WHR) has been associated with the risk of metabolic derangement in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity. In addit...

Genetic obesity is rare and usually affects the hunger/satiety circuit. Monogenic obesity is mainly due to variants in genes of the leptin-melanocortin pathway which regulates the control of food intake. Melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R)-linked obesity has been reported as one of the most common forms of monogenic obesity. Mutations in the MC4R gene have been described in 2-3% of obese children and adults with variable severity of obesity and no additional phenotype. Syndromic ob...

Background: A close association has been reported between obesity and renal damage in adults, but evidence in childhood is still limited.Methods: We retrospectively studied 396 children and adolescents with obesity. Clinical, biochemical, and instrumental evaluations were performed. Patients were stratified according to the metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) phenotypes. Kidney d...

Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to assess the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and insulin secretion in children with obesity.Objectives: To achieve our aim we have assessed OSA and measured insulin secretion by the using the oral minimal model (OMM) in a cohort of 77 obese children and adolescents.Methods: We retrospectively enrolled children and adolesc...

Background: The N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) A803G polymorphism leading to substitution of lysine to arginine at residue 268 and codifying for a cytosolic enzyme catalysing acetyl-CoA-dependent N- and O-acetylation reactions, has been associated with decreased insulin sensitivity in a large adult population with the A allele associated with insulin resistance (IR)-related traits.Objective and hypotheses: We screened for this polymorphism, for th...

Background: Studies examining vitamin D levels in association with childhood obesity usually do not concurrently measure levels of vitamin D-binding protein and do not calculate the unbound, bioavailable vitamin D, that is considered the fraction of 25-hydroxyvitamin D able to exert biological activity.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate in a group of children for the most part obese i) the concentrations of both total 25-hydroxyvitamin D and of the bi...

Introduction: The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) pathway is critical for hunger regulation, energy balance, and weight regulation. In patients with Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS), a rare, genetically heterogeneous, and highly pleiotropic disease, the immotile primary cilia are dysfunctional, leading to MC4R pathway impairment. Patients suffer from symptoms including early vision loss, learning difficulties, and renal dysfunction, next to hyperphagia and ear...

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects up to 40% of children and adolescents with obesity and the risk for OSA is directly correlated with obesity severity. Several studies have pointed out that OSA per se might lead to metabolic derangement including worsening of insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and hepatic steatosis. However, the pathophysiologic mechanisms underpinning these associations remain unclear, especially in pediatric groups. The mai...

Background: The patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) I148M and the transmembrane 6 superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) E167K polymorphisms have been recognized as the major risk polymorphisms for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Data supported a close relationship of NAFLD with thyroid function both in adults and children. To investigate the influence of NAFLD and of its genetics on thyroid function.<p class...

Purpose: Leptin plays a key role in the regulation of body weight and other endocrine systems. Recently, impairment of leptin gene transcription due to genetic variations in a long-noncoding RNA, also referred as lncOb, has been described in mice. In humans, a correspondent polymorphism (rs10487505) has been associated with relatively low plasmatic leptin levels compared to obesity severity and with early obesity onset.Objectives...