ESPE Abstracts

Despite significant advances in the medical management of childhood diseases, glucocorticoids (GCs) continue to be the mainstay of therapy for numerous serious conditions, including hematological malignancies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and inflammatory disorders. In order to understand the natural history of bone development in GC-treated children, a pan-Canadian longitudinal observational research study called "STOPP" (STeroid...

Catch-up growth (CUG) is characterized by a period of supranormal height velocity following a transient period of growth inhibition. The two classical hypotheses on the mechanism are the neuro-endocrine hypothesis (a central mechanism that would recognize the degree of mismatch between actual size and target size) and the growth plate hypothesis (local regulation of growth according to a preset cellular program of senescence, characterized by decreasing growth proliferation ra...

Study of the histopathology of human type 1 and 2 diabetes through the national pancreatic organ donor (nPOD) consortium has yielded interesting new insights that should also aid us in developing improved therapeutic approaches.1. When insulitis is observed, it usually shows a predominance of CD8 T cells, some of which are autoantigen specific (see also Coppieters et al. JEM 2012). It will be therapeutically challenging to remove/prevent CD8 mem...

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM). Dyslipidemia will increase this risk. Several guidelines have been published, how to treat dyslipidemia in T1DM, yet some studies have shown that the number of patients who are treated according to these guidelines is low.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the frequency of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents with T1DM and if they are tr...

The transient activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis shortly after birth has been described as early as in the 70ies. This discovery has since been applied clinically as a ‘window of opportunity’ for diagnostic evaluation of patients suspected of endocrine disorders and differences of sex development. With the advent of increasingly more sensitive and specific analytical methods for peptide and steroid hormones produced in the pituitary, gonads...

Introduction: In cases of disorder of sex development (DSD), the change between the gender assigned at birth and the individual's chosen gender identity can occur especially after puberty.Aim: was to determine the relationship between genetic sex, gender assigned at birth and gender identity, and the importance of molecular diagnosis.Method:154patients older than 14years of ag...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) due to premature activation of GnRH secretion results in early epiphyseal fusion and to a significant compromise in the achieved final adult height as well as psychological consequences. So far only a limited number of genetic determinants have been associated with the pathogenesis in children with CPP. In this original research, rare sequence variants in MKRN3, DLK1, KISS1, and KISS1R genes were i...

Background-Hypothesis: Sudden initiation of treatment for diabetes insipidus (DI) with DDAVP causes abrupt volume expansion resulting in particularly high secretion of Atrial Natriuteric Peptide (ANP) (1). ANP blocks all stimulators of zona glomerulosa steroidogenesis, resulting in secondary mineralocorticoid deficiency and acute hyponatremia, causing renal salt wasting (RSW) (2). Cases: Two sisters, a 19-year-old girl (A) and a 7-year-old girl (B) with Wolfra...

Background: Wolfram syndrome (WS) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder. We present two sisters from non-consanguineous parents, who presented to our pediatric endocrinology clinic due to severe polyuria-polydipsia with inappropriately treated DM (HbA1c 8.2% and 10.1%) and untreated DI.Methods: DNA was tested with PCR amplification and sequencing analysis (Sanger sequencing) of the entire coding region and all exon-intron splice junctions of the...

Background: Protein subfamilies within the Nuclear receptor (NR) family share common domain architecture. These closely related receptors and their cognate ligand compounds play a key role in homeostasis, reproduction, growth, and development. Despite their biological significance, their evolution and diversification remains to be elucidated. SNPs and mutations are characterized by the permanent alteration of the nucleotide sequence in the genome of an organism. These alterati...