ESPE Abstracts

Background: Previous studies have indicated that taller individuals have a higher risk of developing different types of cancer, including breast cancer and melanoma.Objective and hypotheses: Our goal was to study any association between height and the risk of cancer in general-, and breast cancer and melanoma specifically in a very large cohort composed of most Swedish women and men followed over a long period of time.Method: We ha...

Background: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Prolonged use of GCs, however, has several negative side effects, including bone growth impairment in children. Previous studies have shown that GC-induced apoptosis in growth plate chondrocytes is mediated by inhibition of the PI3K–Akt signaling pathway and activation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax. Humanin, a small mitochondrial derived peptide, has shown promisi...

Background: Oestrogens are well known for their capacity to promote bone maturation and at high doses to induce growth plate closure and thereby stop further growth. High-dose oestrogen treatment has therefore been used to limit growth in extremely tall girls. However, recent data suggest that this treatment may have severe side effects, including increased risk of cancer and reduced fertility.Objective and hypotheses: We hypothesised that oestrogenic ef...

Background: Close monitoring of growth is vital when following children with achondroplasia yet existing growth curves suffer from a simple chart format and their clinical use is therefore limited. Also, references for body proportions; i.e. sitting height, relative sitting height and arm span, are lacking.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study was to construct age-specific growth curves for height, weight, body mass index, head circumference an...

Background: There is a shortage of clinically useful growth charts for following growth development in conditions with extreme short stature. At the same time, it is not possible to construct syndrome-specific growth charts for many of these conditions due to low prevalence and perhaps also often a great inter-individual variability of the growth defect within a certain syndrome.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this project was to evaluate growth pat...

Background: Heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in the aggrecan gene (ACAN) cause autosomal dominant short stature with advanced bone age, early-onset osteoarthritis and intervertebral disc disease (SSOAOD; OMIM#165800). ACAN mutations is a relatively common finding in idiopathic short stature (ISS) and has been reported to be the cause of growth failure in approximately 2% of children with ISS. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms by ...

Background and Aim: Despite the broad individual variation of pubertal maturation, references traditionally describe growth in relation to just chronological age and not biological age. Hence, growth references for the adolescent period have been of limited usefulness for monitoring individual growth in clinic and for research. Especially for children and adolescents with chronic diseases is there a need to better evaluate if changes in SD-scores just before a...

Background: Since growth patterns change with time due to secular changes, there is a need to regularly update growth references1. We developed the first continuous birth size reference, from gestational age 24weeks with infancy growth references2, computerized 2006 and used in Swedish health care settings and neonatal units. We now aimed to update this reference by exchanging GrowUp1974Gothenburg cohort to a selected population of health...

Purpose: Anorexia nervosa (AN) increases the risk of impaired bone health, low areal bone mineral density (aBMD), and subsequent fractures. This study investigated the long-term effects on bone and biomarkers in young women with AN.Methods: Twenty-five Swedish female AN patients, median age 21.0 years (16.1 to 24.3 years), median BMI 15.4 kg/m2, were included, 22 patients completed a high-energy in-patient treatment for ...

Introduction: The survival rates for childhood cancer have significantly increased over the past decades but the management of treatment-related complications remains challenging. Thus, the introduction of novel drugs requires careful investigation of potential off-target side effects. The developing skeleton is severely affected by the anticancer treatment which may result in growth retardation and short stature. Venetoclax is a selective Bcl-2 inhibitor whic...