ESPE Abstracts

Background/aims: The high complexity of Pediatric reference ranges across age, sex and units impairs clinical application and comparability of steroid hormone data, e.g., in CAHs. We developed a Multiples-of-Median (MoM) normalization tool to overcome this major drawback in Pediatric Endocrinology.Methods: LC–MS/MS data comprising 10 steroid hormones representing 905 controls (555 males, 350 females, 0 to >16 years) from two previous datasets we...

Background: Leptin is considered to play an important role in the development of hypertension in obesity. The excessive synthesis of aldosterone contributes to the development and progression of metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunctions. Leptin is a newly described regulator of aldosterone synthesis that acts directly on adrenal glomerulosa cells to increase CYP11B2 expression and enhance aldosterone production in human adrenal cells lines and in animal models.<p class="ab...

Background: Autoimmune diseases (AIDs) have familial aggregation and frequently share a common genetic background, but few studies have evaluated autoimmune clusters in children with AIDs and their families.Objective and hypotheses: To identify clusters of AIDs in children and their first-degree relatives.Method: A cross-sectional study was performed in subjects with an AID of pediatric onset (<18 years) recruited at Pediatric ...

Background: The MAMLD1 gene (Xp28) is thought to cause disorder of sex development (DSD) in 46, XY patients, mostly presenting with hypospadias, and, recently, also gonadal dysgenesis. However, there is some controversy about the role of MAMLD1 in sex development because i) some MAMLD1 variants are also detected in normal individuals, ii) others are not present in all affected DSD individuals of the same family; iii) several MAMLD1 mutations...

Introduction: Variants in the N-terminal of the Indian-hedgehog gene (IHH) have been associated with Brachydactyly type-A1 (AD) and Acrocapitofemoral dysplasia (AR), only three of which have been functionally studied. However, heterozygous IHH variants, majority classified as variants of unknown significance (VUS) are being increasingly identified, not only in the N-terminal but also in the uncharacterized C-terminal, by NGS, in individuals with short...

Background: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B is a rare genetic syndrome caused by germline mutations in the RET proto-oncogene. Approximately 75% of MEN2B cases are sporadic and caused by de novo RET mutations, whereas 25% of cases occurs in families with an autosomal dominant inheritance. The most common RET mutation found in 95% of MEN2B patients is the substitution of the amino-acid threonine for methionine at codon 918. In infants with de novo mutation...

Early identification of monogenic obesity, a rare condition, is quite challenging for pediatricians. Src-homology-2 (SH2) B adapter protein 1 (SH2B1) is an important component in the leptin-melanocortin pathway and it is found to play an important role in leptin and insulin signaling. In humans a rare deletion of a 220-kb region on chromosome 16p11.2 encompassing approximately 9 genes, including the SH2B1 gene, is associated with a highly penetrant form of isolated severe earl...

Background: Terminal or interstitial deletions of Xp (Xp22.2→Xpter) in males have been recognized as a cause of contiguous gene syndromes showing variable association of apparently unrelated clinical manifestations such as Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (SHOX), chondrodysplasia punctata (ARSE), mental retardation (NLGN4), ichthyosis (STS), Kallmann syndrome (KAL1), and ocular albinism (GPR143).Case reports: We report ...

Introduction: We report a series of three siblings, two girls and one boy, diagnosed with Central Precocious Puberty (CPP) respectively at the age of 5.66, 6.67 and 8.5 years, carrying a mutation in the gene encoding the makorin RING finger protein 3 (MKRN3), usually responsible for the development of familial CPP.Methods: We diagnosed CPP in all the patients by performing a GnRH test. We also dosed basal levels of LH, F...

Childhood obesity became a global plague: 9% of Italian children (17% of USA children) is obese and 21% is overweight. Nowadays only a small number of obese children undergoes genetic analysis, usually when obesity is associated with dysmorphic features. Our purpose was to identify genomic rearrangement causing obesity: we analyzed the DNA of 52 children by array-CGH (platform CytoScan-HD, Affymetrix). Patients included in our study were 29 males (55,8%) and 23...