ESPE Abstracts

Case Report: A 7 years 5-month-old female presented in our clinic for evaluation of early pubertal development. Parents reported telarche occurring at age 6 years and menarche at age 7 years and 3 months. No history of development of pubic or axillary hair, adult body odor, or acne. Mother had menarche at 13 years of age. Physical examination revealed a height of 138 cm (>95th centile). Mid-parental height was calculated at 157 cm (20th centile). She was found to be Tanner...

Background: Heterozygous de novo variants in SAMD9 cause the complex multisystem growth disorder, MIRAGE syndrome. Core features are myelodysplasia, infection, restricted growth, adrenal hypoplasia, genital/gonadal phenotypes, and enteropathy. However, the range of additional associations is expanding and includes disrupted placental development, poor post-natal growth, and other endocrine features. Milder phenotypes are also described, such ...

Objectives: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is an extremely heterogeneous connective tissue disorder characterized by low bone mass, which together with altered bone matrix properties leads to skeletal fragility. Due to the wide range of symptoms, the pathophysiology of the OI is not fully understood. Null mutations in SERPINF1, encoding the potent antiangiogenic factor PEDF, cause type VI OI with excessive osteoid formation, abnormal osteoblast-osteocyt...

Introduction: Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) is a rare disease, characterized by parathyroid hormone (PTH) resistance and it refers to different mineral disorders of bone metabolism, classified as PHP type 1a (Albright-OHA Hereditary Osteodystrophy), PHP1b and PHP1c (OHA).Four cases reports: Four children were identified as having PHP, being three of them female. PHP was diagnosed at six years of age (three cases) and at...

Introduction: Barakat Syndrome (HDR Syndrome) is characterized by hypoparathyroidism (H), sensorineural deafness (D) and renal disease (R) caused by an autosomal dominant inheritance, being mostly associated to deletions in chromosome 10p14 or mutations in GATA3 gene.Case Report: A 9 years old male was admitted at an emergency complaining of upper and lower limbs pain and contractures that progressed with periodic tetany...

Background: Tissue glucocorticoid sensitivity is characterized by a considerable variation in terms of therapeutic response and side effects to synthetic glucocorticoids. The multi-metabolite concentration profile measured by untargeted plasma metabolomics provides a comprehensive metabolic signature that might be used in clinical practice.Objective and Hypotheses: To investigate the usefulness of plasma metabolomics in identifying a metabolic signature ...

Background: Glucocorticoids exert profound immune-modulating effects and regulate the expression of genes involved in cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Synthetic glucocorticoids are the most potent agents used in the treatment of inflammatory, autoimmune and lymphoproliferative disorders. Considerable variation in response to therapeutic doses of glucocorticoids exists among individuals, as evidenced by differences both in disease response and in the incidence of glucocort...

Background: Actual surgical procedures for the treatment of patients with VSD (Variation of Sex Development), in particular severe hypospadias, are associated with frequent post-operative complications.Objective and hypotheses: Tissue engineered collagen tubes are a promising alternative.Method: We elaborated a new, two layered, collagen based tube that can be sutured. Mechanical testing proved a better resistance of those tubes co...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem of our century, and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In addition to the increased consumption of calories and lack of exercise, accumulating evidence suggests that childhood obesity is strongly associated with prolonged and excessive activation of the stress system.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study was to assess the ...

Background: In humans, glucocorticoids (GCs) regulate a broad spectrum of physiologic functions, exerting both genomic and nongenomic actions through their ubiquitously expressed glucocorticoid receptor (hGR). The rapid nongenomic actions of GCs are likely to be mediated by membrane hGRs that transduce the glucocorticoid signal via activation of kinases. S-palmitoylation plays an important role in plasma membrane localization and occurs through a highly conserved nine amino ac...