ESPE Abstracts

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent chronic liver disease which occurs in the setting of insulin resistance and increased adiposity. It has rapidly evolved into the most common liver disease seen in the pediatric population. NAFLD can be divided into non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL), which denotes bland steatosis, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is marked by steatosis and lobular inflammation and hepatoce...

Objectives: Diazoxide is first line treatment for hypoglycaemia due to hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH). However, the FDA has raised serious concerns regarding diazoxide-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) in 2015. Although sporadic cases of PH have been reported, no HH cohort has been systematically characterised to understand severity and risk factors for diazoxide-induced PH.Methods: To investigate the onset, progress and associated factors in PH,...

Background: Central hypothyroidism (CeH) is a rare thyroid hormone deficiency due to an insufficient stimulation of a normal thyroid gland. Candidate genes for isolated CeH include TSHβ, TRH receptor (TRHR) or IGSF1 genes while the combined pituitary hormone deficits (CPHDs) are the consequence of defects in embryonic pituitary transcription factors or in the prokineticin receptor 2 (PROKR2).Patients series: Here we report nine males (M) and 15 fema...

Background: The replacement therapy with levo-thyroxine (LT4) in congenital hypothyroidism (CH) aims to ensure normal growth and neuropsychological development. Few data are available about the appropriate dose during childhood and early adolescence.Objective and hypotheses: i) To evaluate LT4/kg per day requirement from diagnosis until 12 years of age; ii) to assess any differences in relation to the different etiology of CH as concern...

Innervation of the hypothalamic median eminence by Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) neurons is vital to ensure puberty onset and successful reproduction. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying median eminence development and pubertal timing are incompletely understood. Here we show that Semaphorin-6A is strongly expressed by median eminence-resident oligodendrocytes positioned adjacent to GnRH neuron projections and fenestrated capillaries, and that Sem...

Background: Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency is a systemic metabolic disease that primarily affects the immune system and lymphocyte development, causing a severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID). However, the accumulation of toxic metabolites occurs in other organs and systems. Since most ADA-SCID patients undergo definitive treatment with Gene Therapy (GT) or allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), preceded by conditioning (either...

Context: The response to lifestyle modification (LSM) in children with obesity is variable and difficult to predict.Aim: A systematic search for molecular markers to predict outcomes of LSM in pediatric obesity management.Patients/Methods: Out of 240 children with obesity (BMI>97%) recruited to a prospective ‘multi-OMICS’ study granted by ESPE Research Unit, 159 subj...

Context: The response to lifestyle modification (LSM) in children with obesity is variable and difficult to predict.Aim: A systematic search for identifying common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to predict positive outcomes of LSM in pediatric obesity management, defined as decrease in BMI z-score (based on IOTF).Patients/Methods: Out of 240 children with obesity (BMI>97...

Context: The unified approach for obese children can result in therapeutic failure as obesity is a symptom of several conditions. It was previously suggested that only children with obesity onset beyond age 6 years will develop the metabolic syndrome and T2D. In turn, early childhood obesity carries a few times less risk of adult obesity comparing to that with the onset during juvenility.Aim: We determine the clinical an...

Context: The traditional approach to childhood obesity management is lifestyle modification/LSM. Nevertheless, the response rate is variable and difficult to predict.Aim: A systematic search for markers to predict outcomes of simple LSM in pediatric obesity management.Patients/Methods: Out of 240 children with obesity (BMI>97%), recruited to a prospective ‘multi-OMICS’ study granted b...