ESPE Abstracts

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic (chromosomal) mental retardation syndrome. In these patients, several environmental and hormonal factors contribute to low bone mineral density (BMD), among these factors, vitamin D may play a significant role in the health of patients with DS. However, poor studies have evaluated 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol (25(OH)D) levels in DS.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to assess se...

Background: Few studies have assessed 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] status among Italian children.Objective and hypotheses: To assess 25(OH)D in children and adolescents living in Tuscany, Italy, identifing risk factors for vitamin D deficiency in different age groups.Method: We evaluated 446 children children and adolescents (2.4–17.8 years), from Mugello (latitude 44° N), and we determined 25(OH)D, calcium, alkaline ph...

Background: Hypovitaminosis D is common in the general population. Although many studies on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) are available on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), little data is present in juvenile onset SLE (JSLE) patients.Objective and hypotheses: This study aimed to assess serum 25(OH)D levels in JSLE patients and to identify risk factors for vitamin D deficiency in this population.Method: Forty-five consecutive Cauc...

Background: Unlike precocious puberty, early and/or fast puberty have been less studied, despite the fact that this disorder may be associated to an organic lesion at CNS level.Objective and hypotheses: We illustrate a case of early and fast puberty in a girl with an occult intra-cranial tumor.Method: The girl was the first child of non-consanguineous, Italian parents. The family had a positive history of early puberty. Target heig...

Background: Autoimmune’s thyroiditis (AT) is the most common cause of thyroid diseases in children and adolescents with a peak in early to mid-puberty (prevalence of 0.3–1.2%). Previous studies showed a high rates of familiarity for autoimmune disease (AD) and co-existing autoimmunity in AT subjects.Objective and hypotheses: Aim of our study is to investigate familiarity for AD and co-existing autoimmunity in a large cohort of pediatric AT pati...

For the brain tumor committee of SFCE (Société Française des Cancers de l’Enfant).Objective: Therapeutic approach favors chemotherapy as the first-line-treatment in progressing OPG. There are few data on long term endocrine outcomes of aggressive OPG treated by upfront chemotherapy. Our main objective was to describe the long-term endocrine sequelae in these patients and to identify potential early predictors of the endocrine involvem...

Background: The genetic etiology of non-syndromic HI remains unknown in over 20% of all cases, and over 50% of diazoxide-responsive cases. Non-coding variants in HK1 have been suggested to cause HI by linkage-analysis (Pinney et al., 2008). More recently, variants within a regulatory region of HK1 intron 2 were reported in 17 individuals with HI (Wakeling et al., 2022). These variants have been proposed to cause HI by disrup...

Background: Children affected by cerebral palsy (CP) could experience central precocious puberty (CPP) 20 times more than general population. Nevertheless, the treatment is challenging.Objective and hypotheses: To compare CPP features and the effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy (GnRHa) in children with CP and in controls.Method: The study involved 16 children with CPP and CP (median age (range) at diagnosis of...

Background: Obesity is tightly associated with adipose tissue inflammation. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) has been identified as a key player in this inflammatory process and has been linked to the development of obesity-associated insulin resistance. Our group studies the involvement of TNF superfamily members in obesity-induced alterations in adipose tissue.Objective and hypotheses: Here, we aimed to identify the effects of the TNF superfamil...

Background: microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small (18–25 nucleotides), non-coding RNA molecules. They play an important role in the regulation of gene expression by either suppressing translation of genes or inducing their mRNA degradation. Several miRNA species are expressed in adipose tissue and involved in adipocyte function.Objective and hypotheses: Obesity leads to the infiltration of macrophages into adipose tissue causing local inflammation...