ESPE Abstracts

Background: Acromesomelic dysplasia Maroteaux type (AMDM) (OMIM 602875) is a rare autosomal recessive skeletal disorder with an approximate prevalence of 1/1,000,000) and characterized by severe dwarfism accompanied by shortness of distal and middle segments of extremities. Mutations in the NPR2 gene which encodes for the natriuretic peptide receptor B (NPR-B) is the underlying genetic cause of this disorder.Objective and hypotheses: Genetic con...

Background: Adolescence is often a period of worse metabolic control and less wellbeing in diabetic children. We studied global (GW) and diabetic-related (DRW) wellbeing in diabetic adolescents and the influence of sex, age, ethnic origin, family composition (single- or two-parent family), family income and metabolic control.Method: 133 (71 girls, 120 autochthonous, 20 treated with CSII, 107 from a two-parent family, 68 from families with a monthly incom...

Background: Extensive and time-consuming hormonal and genetic work-up provides a genetic diagnosis in around 20% of 46,XY cases with ambiguous genitalia. It is currently unclear if such extensive screening might also be indicated in 46,XY newborns with milder undervirilization.Method: All 46,XY neonates and infants (n=32, EMS 2–12) referred to our pediatric endocrine service for atypical male genitalia in the period 2007–2013 were inve...

Background: Despite the fact that pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) is a frequent finding in children with combined GH deficiency (CGHD), clinical data are still limited and the growth response to GH treatment has not been evaluated in comparison with CGDH with a normal stalk.Objective and hypotheses: To report the clinical and hormonal findings and evaluate the short term growth response to GH in Belgian children with congenital non-syndromat...

Background: Being born small for gestational age (SGA) is an associated condition to nonspecific 46,XY DSD (without molecular diagnosis and with no specific disorders of undermasculinization). However, the underlying mechanism of the relationship between the presence of genital abnormalities and intrauterine growth restriction is unknown. The GH-IGF system is crucial for sex differentiation in mice and in humans, members of this system were detected in embryon...

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are those congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical. The aim of this study was to characterize the histology of 46,XX DSD prepubertal gonads. We studied 25 gonads of fourteen 46,XX DSD patients. The age of biopsy/gonadectomy was 1.17 (0.08–4.17) years (median and range). Molecular studies confirmed the absence of SRY by PCR and/or MLPA in blood samples of all patients and i...

Background: In Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a hereditary disease in which AR mutations in 46,XY patients present with partial (PAIS) or complete (CAIS) defects in virilisation.Objective and hypotheses: The aim was to analyze the effect of lack of androgen action in germ cell (GC) health and survival along postnatal development, previous to Sertoli cell (SC) pubertal maturation.Method: The histological features and quant...

Background: Carriers of germline DICER1 mutations are predisposed to a rare cancer syndrome, the DICER1 syndrome, associated with tumors such as pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB), ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors (SLCT), multinodular goiter (MNG), cystic nephroma (CN), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) or primitive neuroectodermic tumor. DICER1 is involved in the generation of microRNAs (miRNAs), short, double-stranded, non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression at ...

Background: The SRY protein is a transcription factor that contains a high mobility group (HMG) homeobox domain which possesses sequence-specific DNA binding activity and regulates other genes involved in male sex determination pathway. The majority of the identified mutations occurred within the HMG-box motif. There are few reports of pedigrees with familial transmission.Objective and Hypotheses: To describe a paternally transmitted novel SRY mutation w...

Background: FOP is an ultra-rare, severely disabling genetic disorder characterised by progressive heterotopic ossification (HO) following flare-ups. The median age at diagnosis is 5 years, and patients are managed by multiple specialties. No study to date has provided a longitudinal evaluation of FOP. Final data are presented for participants, aged <25 years, enrolled in the first 36-month, prospective, global natural history study of FOP (NCT02322255).</...