ESPE Abstracts

Human growth is a complex trait. A considerable number of gene defects have been shown to cause short stature, but there are only few examples of genetic causes of non-syndromic tall stature. Besides rare variants with large effects and common risk alleles with small effect size, oligogenic effects may contribute to this phenotype. Exome sequencing was carried out in a tall male (height 3.5 SDS) and his parents. Filtered damaging variants with high CADD scores were validated b...

Introduction: Familial tall stature (FTS) is defined as height taller than +2 SD in a subject growing within his/her midparental height (MPH) with no apparent dysmorphic features. FTS is routinely not an indication for genetic investigation. However, some subtle dysmorphic features of various genetic disorders might be missed justifying the need for further investigation.Aims: To elucidate the genetic cause of FTS and to...

Introduction: In 1950s - 1960s, the thalidomide disaster resulted in congenital malformations in more than 10,000 children. Derivative of thalidomide interferes with early embryonic transcriptional regulation due to selective degradation of SALL4 protein and thus, thalidomide embryopathy phenocopies pathogenic variants of the SALL4 gene. Their phenotypes range from phocomelia, reduced radial ray, to defects of the heart, kidneys, eye, and cerebral mid...

Background: Very tall people attract a lot of attention and represent a clinically and genetically heterogenous group of individuals. Identifying the genetic etiology can provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms regulating linear growth.Methods and Results: We studied a three-generation pedigree with several isolated (non-syndromic) tall members by whole exome sequencing; the tallest man had a height of 2...

Introduction: Primary multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (MPHD) is caused by impaired development of the pituitary gland during the intrauterine period. Pathogenic variants in numerous genes affecting pituitary morphogenesis or differentiation have been proven to cause MPHD. However, in most people, genetic examination still fails to bring a conclusive finding explaining the cause of MPHD. The aim of our study was to identify the genetic aetiology of MPHD u...

Introduction: Patients carrying homozygous IGF1 loss-of-function mutations are extremely rare and show severe pre- and postnatal growth failure, microcephaly, developmental delay, retrognathia and sensorineural deafness. Heterozygous variants in IGF1 appear to be more common in short stature, but only few cases have been reported in detail. Therefore, clinical features and growth response to recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy are...

Background: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are ionotropic glutamate receptors that are widely expressed in the CNS where they play an important role in neurotransmission and cell viability and serve as drug targets for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.Objective and hypotheses: Much less is known about the role of pancreatic NMDARs. Since neurons and pancreatic islets have many features in common, we hypothesiz...

Background: Subtle phenotypic differences have previously been described among children with varied genetic subtypes of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) – 15q11-q13 paternal microdeletion, maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD), and rare imprinting center defects. The MKRN3 gene, located on 15q11.2, is a master regulator of pubertal initiation and is a candidate gene for abnormal pubertal development in PWS.Objective and hy...

Introduction: Monogenic Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a rare disease caused by pathogenic variant in a single gene leading to dysregulation of immune system. T1D is combined with other autoimmunity like immune cytopenias, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic eczema, autoimmune thyroid disease etc in these patients. Pathogenic variants in the AIRE, FOXP3, LRBA, IL2RA, CTLA4, STAT3 and STAT1 genes have...

Introduction: Familiar short stature (FSS) is a common variant of growth with heterogeneous etiology. Children with FSS are often excluded from further check-up and treatment. However, significant number of children with FSS comply even with the European criteria for growth hormone (GH) therapy – patients with SHOX-deficiency, growth hormone deficiency (GHD) or these born short for gestational age (SGA). The aim of the study was to identify genetic etiology of short statu...