ESPE Abstracts

Background: Thyroid function in preterm infants is often altered for various reasons. LBW or VLBW newborns frequently present a particular form of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) characterized by low FT4 and delayed TSH elevation. The incidence of this disease is 1:250 for VLBW babies and 1:1589 for LBW newborns. In this condition, neonatal screening based solely on TSH can miss the diagnosis, therefore some screening programs have proposed to repeat the screening te...

Background: Low birth weight (LBW) followed by a rapid postnatal catch-up in weight predisposes individuals to a central distribution of body fat, which is reverted by metformin. Growth-and-differentiation-factor-15 (GDF15) plays an important role in the regulation of energy homeostasis, reducing food intake and lowering body weight. We aimed to assess whether GDF15 concentrations are raised by long-term metformin treatment in LBW/catch-up girls with precociou...

Background: Growth-and-differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) is a regulator of energy homeostasis, and is used as biomarker of several pathological states.Objectives: To assess longitudinally GDF15 concentrations in a cohort of infants born either appropriate- (AGA, n=70) or small-for-gestational-age (SGA, n=33), the latter known to be at increased risk for central adiposity and metabolic alteration...

Background: In rodents, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), an endocrine member of the FGF family, is mainly produced in the liver and promotes glucose oxidation in several tissues; the circulating concentrations of FGF21 rise shortly after birth. In the human, the ontogeny of circulating FGF21 is essentially unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To assess whether there is also a neonatal surge of circulating FGF21 concen...

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system is fundamental for physiological processes such as growth and metabolism. In addition, in the brain it regulates glucose metabolism and neuroprotection. The IGF axis can be altered by nutritional status, but little is known regarding the effects of specific dietary components on this system.Our aim was to examine how high-fat diet (HFD) and low-fat/high sucrose diet (LFHSD) intake affect the central and circula...

Background: Maternal autoimmune hypothyroidism can have negative consequences on the fetus: on the one hand, maternal hypothyrosinemia might affect the fetal brain development in the early stages of pregnancy; on the other, thyroid inhibiting antibodies can pass through the placenta. It is currently unclear if these antibodies may affect the newborn’s thyroid function. Consequently, there are no certain indications regarding the management of newborns bor...

The ongoing European LIFE-MILCH project(www.lifemilch.eu), focuses on detecting Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in mothers, in breast and formula milk and in urine of mothers and infants up to 12 months of age studying relationships with neurodevelopment, growth, distribution of adiposity, pubertal stages to establish a risk assessment model to prepare safety guidelines. In this study we have evaluated the effects of maternal diet during and after pregnancy, and of duration of ...

The ongoing European LIFE-MILCH project (www.lifemilch.eu), focuses on detecting Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in mothers, in breast and formula milk and in urine of mothers and infants up to 12 months of age studying relationships with neurodevelopment, growth, distribution of adiposity, pubertal stages, and ano-genital distance (AGD) to establish a risk assessment model to prepare safety guidelines. In this study we evaluated the effects of maternal diet during and after pr...

Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) and related disorders lead to a wide spectrum of abnormal physical characteristics, neurocognitive and endocrine abnormalities. PHP (including all subtypes), pseudoPHP, acrodysostosis and progressive osseous heteroplasia refer to heterogeneous disorders characterized by physical findings, differently associated in each subtype, including short bones, short stature, stocky build, subcutaneous ectopic ossifications, as well as laboratory abnormalit...

Introduction: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) secretes molecules capable of modulating systemic metabolism. Growth hormone (GH) has hyperglycemic action, produces lipolysis and increases muscle mass. However, there are no human studies on its effect on the BAT and lipidome.Aim: To evaluate the effect of GH on BAT and lipidome in small for gestational age (SGA) patients and its relationship with adherence to treatment.<p c...