ESPE Abstracts

Background: A finding of an enlarged clitoris in a female newborn, raises the suspicion of abnormal sexual differentiation and the possibility of female virilization, most commonly due to CAH. This often leads to an extensive medical evaluation which can be painful, expensive, and stressful for the patient and her family. Medical literature does not provide accurate values of a normal clitoris size. According to the few studies available, the current norm rang...

Introduction: Secondary hyperparathyroidism is a serious and expected complication in almost every patient with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Nevertheless brown tumors formed by osteoclasts are rarely found in this subtype of patients and are extremely rare in children with CKD. The most common localizations of brown tumors are the jaw and long bones. We aimed to present three clinical cases of brown tumors in children with CKD on hemodialysis observed in a single dialysis cen...

Accumulating evidence supports a causal role for the human gut microbiome in obesity, diabetes, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, and numerous other conditions. I will present our research on the role of the human microbiome in health and disease, ultimately aimed at developing personalized medicine approaches that combine human genetics, microbiome, and nutrition. In one project, we tackled the subject of personalization of human nutrition, using a cohort of over 1...

In this presentation, we will highlight areas of progress in pediatric brown adipose tissue (BAT) research over the past decade, including the general acceptance that this tissue is much more prevalent in children than adults and in infants than in children. Available longitudinal data in pediatric patients provide strong evidence in support of an inverse association between BAT activity and white adipose tissue (WAT) accumulation, most strikingly in the intra-abdominal depot....

Background: The endocrine role of white adipose tissue (WAT), as a site of release of the so-called adipokines, has been recognized for long. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is the main site of adaptive thermogenesis in mammals, especially relevant in neonates and early infancy. The amount and activity of BAT are associated with a healthy metabolic profile and protection against obesity, type II diabetes and hyperlipidemia. This biological role of BAT is traditionally attributed to...

Introduction: We previously reported that miglitol, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (α-GI), increases energy expenditure by enhancing β3-adrenergic signaling of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and reduces obesity in dietary-induced obese mice (S Sugimoto et al, at the 9th joint meeting of Pediatric Endocrinology, 2013) (Nutrition & Metabolism). However, this report did not describe the mechanism by which miglitol enhances β3-adrenergic signaling....

Background: Studies in animal models revealed that brown and white adipocytes derive from different progenitor cells. Molecular characteristics of these cells have not been investigated in detail in humans.Objective and hypotheses: To identify novel markers of human brown adipocyte progenitor cells.Method: Progenitor cells from human paired deep neck and subcutaneous adipose tissue samples were obtained from n=12 subjects ...

Brown tumor is a rare non-neoplastic focal giant cell lesion resulting due to increase osteolytic activity by excess of parathormone in cortical bone which is replaced by fibrovascular tissue, giant cells with hemorrhages and hemosiderin. It is a rare late stage bone sequelae of long standing hyperparathyroidism. Parathyroid adenoma is the commonest cause of primary hyperparathyroidism.We present a referred case of 15-year-old girl with highly aggressive...

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a key component of the body's defence against cold challenge and possesses the ability to convert large amounts of chemical energy to heat, conferred by a unique protein, uncoupling protein (UCP)-1, diverting mitochondrial respiration from the production of adenosine triphosphate. In humans, the largest BAT depot is in the supraclavicular region. Sympathetic nervous system stimulation induces glucose uptake into brown adipose tissue, as does i...

Background/objectives: Individuals born small-for-gestational age (SGA), especially those who experience postnatal catch-up growth, are at increased risk for developing endocrine-metabolic abnormalities before puberty. In adults, brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been associated with protection against metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidaemia. Here, we assessed for the first time whether BAT activation differs between prepubertal children born SGA o...