ESPE Abstracts

Background: A total of 83,803 patients who received rhGH therapy were enrolled in KIGS (Pfizer International Growth Database) including 748 patients diagnosed with a specified or unspecified skeletal dysplasia. The most prevalent diagnoses were hypochondroplasia (n=238: Female=111, Male=127), achondroplasia (n=113: F=51, M=62) and Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis, LWD (n=88: F=59, M=29).Objective: To analyse the first year response...

Background: Initiation and progression of puberty requires concerted action of activating and inhibiting factors. Recently, cases of central precocious puberty have been linked to loss-of-function mutations of makorin RING-finger protein 3 (MKRN3) indicating a pivotal inhibitory role of MKRN3 on GnRH secretion.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate peripubertal circulating MKRN3 levels in healthy boys.Method: Healthy boys (n<...

Background: Pubertal gynaecomastia (PG) is considered a clinical sign of an oestrogen–androgen imbalance at the breast tissue level although little evidence exists. PG occurs in 40–60% of adolescent Caucasian boys, and in most cases however, no underlying endocrinopathy can be identified. Very few longitudinal studies on PG exist.Objective and method: As a part of the longitudinal COPENHAGEN Puberty Study we followed 110 healthy Danish boys (ag...

Background: Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is produced by small growing ovarian follicles. It inhibits both FSH induced maturation of follicles as well as aromatase activity. Genetic variation of AMH signalling is associated with age at menopause and circulating oestradiol levels, i.e. AMH rs10407022 T>G (intragenic) and AMHR2 rs11170547 C>T (putative enhancer).Objective and hypotheses: This present study aims to investigate ...

Background: Idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) results from the premature reactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis leading to development of secondary sexual characteristics prior to 8 years in girls or 9 years in boys. Mutations in the maternally imprinted MKNR3 gene are the most common identified genetic cause of ICPP to date. Expression of MKRN3 in the arcuate nucleus is presumed to be inhibitory to GnRH secretion, but the exact mechanism remains un...

Background: Significant changes in metabolism and water equilibrium are registered during pregnancy. However, very limited previous investigations have been carried out on variations of exposure levels and metabolism of non-persistent environmental chemicals during pregnancy.Objective and hypotheses: The objective of this longitudinal study is to describe variation in exposure of pregnant women to environmental chemicals. We hypothesise that variation in...

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) leads to several metabolic effects in the body ranging from abnormal body composition to biochemical disturbances such as high insulin sensitivity. However, less is known regarding these parameters in children with a milder deficiency in GH secretion.Objective and hypotheses: To analyse if short children with a relatively low GH secretion differ metabolically from healthy children of normal height.<p class="abst...

Objectives: We designed a longitudinal study to investigate the association between central pubertal activation with age at the appearance of clinical signs of puberty. We, therefore, assessed nocturnal gonadotropin secretion which can be detected in the form of total luteinizing hormone (LH) immunoreactivity in the daytime- and sleeptime-excreted urine.Methods: Thirty healthy volunteers (17 boys and 13 girls, aged 3.4&n...

Background: Obesity in childhood is defined by age- and sex-specific BMI cut-off values. However, BMI does not disclose the distribution of fat mass. Increased abdominal adipose tissue is associated with a higher risk of cardio-metabolic disease in adulthood. Thus, precise measurements of abdominal adipose tissue in children may enable early prevention of disease.Objective and hypotheses: To validate measurements of abdominal adipose tissue by anthropome...

Introduction: Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) is subdivided into two depots by the fascia of Scarpa. The deep SAT (dSAT) and superficial SAT (sSAT) are morphologically and metabolically distinct, with dSAT reportedly being more similar to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in terms of elevating the risk for obesity-related complications. Conversely, sSAT appears to be more similar to lower-body SAT. The relationship between dSAT and metabolic disease ha...