ESPE Abstracts

Background: The increasing number of transgender adolescents presenting in early puberty requires to investigate the effects of long-term puberty suppression and gender-affirming hormones (GAH) on body composition and metabolism. Clinical studies have ethical and practical limitations. A preclinical mouse model may be helpful to gain mechanistic insights.Methods: Prepubertal (4week-old) female mice were treated with the ...

Background: Transgender individuals increasingly present at gender services in childhood. Consequently, to suppress pubertal development, more adolescents are long-term exposed to gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRHa), from onset of puberty until start of gender-affirming hormones (GAH), around 16 years. Prolonged GnRHa may compromise bone health more than shorter-term treatment. If earlier start of GAH, when psychologically indicated, may partially...

Background: The basic subset of T cells playing a major role in the pathogenesis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are CD8+T cells. The mechanism of disease initiation is dysfunction of natural Tregs leading to breakdown of the self-tolerance. The best known subset of natural Tregs are CD4+Foxp3+T, but CD8+T cells expressing CD122 were also recognized as functional Treg cells.Objective and hypotheses: The aimof the study was to evaluate the contribution of...

Background and Aim: A substantial proportion of SGA patients have a syndrome underlying their growth restriction. Most SGA cohorts comprise both syndromic (S-SGA) and non-syndromic patients (nonS-SGA) impeding delineation of the recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) response. We present a detailed characterization of the Belgian SGA cohort and analyze rhGH response based on adult height (AH).Patients & Methods: Cli...

Introduction: Autoimmune thyroid diseases are multifactorial diseases with a genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. A potential role of the Fas apoptotic inhibitory molecule 2 (FAIM2) gene, the high-affinity alpha subunit (CD25) of the interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2RA) gene, the cytotoxic T cell antigen 4 (CTLA-4) gene polymorphisms on autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) in children has not been established equivocally yet.Objective: To estimate...

Background: Autoimmune thyroid diseases are multifactorial diseases with a genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. A potential role of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4) gene, Fc receptor-like 3 (FCRL3) gene, Fas apoptotic inhibitory molecule 2 (FAIM2) gene polymorphisms on autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) in children has not been established equivocally yet.Objective and hypotheses: To estimate the association of polymorphi...

Background: A mutation in EIF2S3 (NM_001415; Xp22.11) was previously associated with microcephaly and developmental delay in a single pedigree. EIF2S3 encodes the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 subunit 3 (eIF2γ), the largest of three EIF2 subunits. EIF2 initiates protein synthesis by forming a ternary complex with GTP and initiator methionyl-tRNA which then binds to the 40S ribosomal subunit, enabling scanning of mRNA from the 5′ end to...

Background: Glucocorticoids play a major role in the treatment of lymphoblastic lymphoma. However, supraphysiological glucocorticoid therapy may cause the secondary adrenal insufficiency.Presentation of case: A 11-year-old boy with T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, treated according to COG A5971 protocol, experienced sudden onset of tremor and general weakness in the first day after tapering 28 days of glucocorticoid therapy. He had a moon face and pigmenta...

Background: Graves’ disease (GD) is almost always the cause of hyperthyroidism in children. Studies carried out for recent years confirm an important role of T regulatory cells (Tregs) in the development of autoimmune diseases. However, the interactions between T-cell response and Treg proliferation in GD is still poorly understood.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this research was the assessment of the in vitro proliferation of Treg ce...

Background: Trisomy 21 is associated with an increased susceptibility to respiratory infections.Objective and hypotheses: For a more detailed characterization of the adaptive immune response, we analyzed the cellular and humoral immunity to specific pathogens in blood samples of 40 children with Down’s syndrome in comparison to 51 age-matched controls.Method: We quantitatively analyzed lymphocyte subpopulations using flow cyto...