ESPE Abstracts

The LMNA gene encodes lamin A/C, intermediate filament proteins associated with the inner nuclear membrane. Mutations in LMNA gene cause a wide range of human diseases sometimes called ‘laminopathies’ that affect different organ systems depending upon the mutation. Most laminopathies involve tissue of mesenchymal origins, resulting in such features as cardiac disorders and/or muscular dystrophy, lipodystrophy or progeroid syndromes. The group of progeroid syndromes i...

Background: The aim of therapy in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is to use glucocorticoid doses as low as possible to achieve adrenal suppression. Both chronically increased androgen secretion and increased glucocorticoid exposure may adversely affect adult height and in some patients this therapeutic balance is difficult to achieve. In these particular cases aromatase inhibitors (AI) could be indicated with de aim to reduce glucocorticoid doses avoiding th...

Background: Costello syndrome may be associated with Hyperinsulinaemic Hypoglycaemia (HI), but this is usually a mild medically-responsive form.Objective and hypotheses: To describe the clinical characteristics, biochemical findings and challenging management of a case of Costello syndrome with severe HI.Method: Review of the patient’s medical records.Results: Male, born to non-consanguineous healthy par...

Background: Pseudohypoparathyroidism is a group of rare disorders characterized by tissue insensitivity to PTH and Albright hereditary osteodystrophy (AHO) due to inactivating mutations or epigenetic defects of the GNAS.Objective and hypotheses: Clinical features and molecular characteristics of patients with PHP have been examined.Method: We included 28 patients from 26 families with PHP1a and 1b. GNAS mutation analysis w...

Background: Achondroplasia and hypochondroplasia are more frequent types of skeletal dysplasia. De novo mutations in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) gene are the principal cause. More than 95% of the cases of achondroplasia result from a mutation G1138A (Gly380Arg). In hypochondroplasia we usually (50–70%) found the change C1620A y C1620G, N540K (Asn540Lys).Objective and hypotheses: We describe an skeletal dysplasia...

Background: The lipodystrophy syndromes are a heterogeneous group of congenital or acquired disorders characterized by either complete or partial lack of adipose tissue (lipoatrophy). Berardinelli Seip congenital lipodystrophy (BSCL) is a rare metabolic disorder characterized by severe generalised lipodystrophy since birth, insulin resistance, and dyslipemia since early infancy.Case presentation: We report a 6-year-old girl who arrived from Pakistan with...

Background: Recent studies in multiple models of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) have demonstrated the role of mitochondrial abnormalities in the pathogenesis of this disease and its complications. Humanin is a potent cyto-protective and ‘metaboloprotective’ molecule in vitro and in vivo, including the protection of β cells from apoptosis, improvements in insulin secretion and action, and both prevention and treatment of diabetes in the NOD mou...

Background: Genomic imprinting causes genes to be expressed or repressed depending on their parental origin. The 1-Mb DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain is located on human chromosome 14. Gene expression along this cluster is regulated by an intergenic differentially methylated imprinting control region (‘IG-DMR’). In mice, altered gene dosage within this cluster is associated with alterations in embryonic and placental growth.Objective and hy...

Background: Maternal obesity can have long-term consequences for the offspring’s health, including increased risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The C19MC imprinted locus on chromosome 19q13.4 comprises a cluster of 46 microRNAs, which are usually expressed only in the placenta and from the paternal allele exclusively. Besides its role favouring trophoblast migration, the C19MC locus is deregulated in several human cancers. It is unknown ...

Introduction:Up to 20% of children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) develops low-grade optic pathway gliomas(OPGs) that can result in neuroendocrinopathy.The aim of the study was to identify prognostic factors for developing neuroendocrinopathies in patients with NF1 and OPGs before any treatment.Methods: Records of 117 children with NF1 and OPGs followed at 4 Italian centers between 1997-20...