ESPE Abstracts

Background: The increasing incidence of obesity is a serious global public health challenge. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that interfere with the endocrine system, including adipose tissue. Increasing evidence from epidemiological, animal, and in vitro studies shows that EDCs, in particular bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates (e.g. di-ethyl-hexyl-phthalate, DEHP), can affect body weight, adipogenesis and circulating lipid profile,...

Background: Over the past several decades, the age of pubertal onset in girls has shifted downward worldwide. Several factors including genetic predisposition, psychosocial and socio-economic conditions, diet and ethnicity may have contributed to this phenomenon. Epidemiological and animal studies have shown that the exposure to BPA and DEHP may be associated with early onset of puberty in girls.Objective: To investigate...

Background: The increasing incidence of obesity is a global public health challenge. Although energy imbalance is the major cause of obesity, evidence suggests that other risk factors such as exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may contribute to the development of obesity. Early life exposure to obesogens may result in a higher risk of developing obesity. Among the chemicals suspected to have obesogenic effects, bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates are under worldwid...

Background: Over the past several decades, the age of pubertal onset in girls has shifted downward worldwide. Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during critical windows of development may play a role in this trend. Epidemiological and animal studies showed that exposure to phthalates and BPA could be associated with earlier puberty onset in girls.Objective: To investigate the association between the exposure to BPA, DEHP’s metabolites...

HMGB1 is a small-protein which reflects both inflammation and insulin-sensitivity. Inflammation and insulin-resistance are features of PCOS. IL-6 is important for ovarian function and can contribute to insulin-resistance. IGFBP-2 behaves like an acute-phase protein and is increased in chronic inflammation. It is also involved in the glucose-metabolism regulation and IGFBP-2 overexpression plays a protective role against insulin-resistance. Insulin functions as a co-gonadotropi...

Of the 67 included DSD patients, 33% were HSCs. 68% women and 32% men, with a total concordance between legal sex, current gender and chromosomal sex. Median age: 10.5 years, IQR 8-14. The most frequent clinical form was non-classical (NC) 45.5%, followed by classical with saline loss (CPS) 41%. The distribution of each clinical form according to the karyotype is significant (P = 0.013), the most frequent with XY karyotype is CPS and in NC forms all cases are XX. Med...

Background: Injuries occur frequently in the obese young population even if they need to practice physical activity. The greatest part of Italian adolescents plays sports only at school.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between overweight and obesity, and the risk of injuries in adolescents during school physical activity.Method: This is a retrospective cohort study utilizing the ele...

It is known that almost 180 million children in the world have stunted growth. Most of these children live in eastern and central Africa and in South-central Asia. Among multiple factors causing stunted growth in the developing world, malnutrition is the most important one. On the other hand, reduced caloric intake is also a cause of poor statural growth in developed countries.Mammals, including humans, exposed to malnutrition experience poor bone growth...

Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-κB) is a group of seven transcription factors, including p65 (RelA), c-Rel, RelB, p50/p105 (NF-κB1), and p52/p100 (NF-κB2). Upon activation by a wide variety of stimuli, NF-κB translocates to the nucleus, where it modulates the expression of target genes involved in cell growth, survival, and death.Previous evidence indicates that NF-κB regulates bone growth and development. Mice deficient in both the N...

Background: FGF21 is a hormonal factor with powerful anti-diabetic and anti-obesity properties in adults\. Studies in rodent models indicated that hepatic FGF21 expression and blood FGF21 levels are strongly induced after birth in response to fat provided by milk ingestion. Moreover, preliminary data indicate that FGF21 is present in maternal milk.Objective and hypotheses: Our objective is to determine, using human samples and pre-clinical experimental m...