ESPE Abstracts

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...

21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD) is the most common form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and is caused by mutations in the CYP21A2 gene. 21OHD causes a wide array of clinical symptoms that result from gluco- and mineralocorticoid deficiency and adrenal androgen excess. In most cases, supra-physiological glucocorticoid doses are necessary which may cause short stature, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular and metabolic co-morbidity with reduced quality of lif...

Background and hypothesis: Mitochondrial disorders are multisystemic conditions associated with sensorineural hearing loss, encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and non-autoimmune diabetes. The majority of molecular etiologies involve mutations in the genes encoding the oxidative phosphorylation system's components. Superoxide generation is significantly increased and causes oxidative damage in the affected tissues in these disorders. The establishment of ...

Background: PAPP-A2 is a metalloproteinase that specifically cleaves IGFBPs 3 and 5. Papp-a2 knock-out (KO) mice show a reduction in body size and skeletal abnormalities.Objective and hypotheses: Our objective is to report two affected families from Spain and USA. The Spanish family presents a homozygous frameshift mutation in exon 3 of the PAPP-A2 gene (c.1927_ 1928insAT, p.D643fs25X) resulting in a premature stop codon, with 2 of 4 si...

Background: DLK1 (PREF1) is a key inhibitor of adipogenesis and adipocyte differentiation. Adipose tissue expansion depends on adequate adipocyte differentiation. However, whether lower DLK1 expression facilitates adipose tissue expansion following fetal growth restriction is so far unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study the expression of DLK1 in the adipose tissue of prenatally growth-restricted rats and its relat...

Background: Soluble CD163 (sCD163) is shed from the cell surface into the circulation as a specific marker of macrophage activation. Macrophages are involved in low-grade inflammatory states such as obesity.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the relationships between circulating sCD163 and metabolic parameters in asymptomatic prepubertal children.Method: A population of 236 school-aged Caucasian children (111 girls and 125 bo...

Background: Intrauterine growth influences the risk of childhood obesity and its associated metabolic derangement.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the effect of intrauterine growth (as shown by newborn anthropometry) on physical and metabolic features in obese children and adolescents.Method: A retrospective study of 1049 obese children and adolescents (46.8% females/53.2% males; age: 10.31±3.23 years; BMI: +4.00±...

Background: Prolonged poor dietary habits can result in hypothalamic inflammation and gliosis with more recent studies suggest that other brain areas may also be affected. Western or high fat diet intake has been associated with increased cognitive impairment and aberrant feeding behavior, with males and females being differentially affected. The hippocampus participates in both of these functions. Saturated free fatty acids can induce astrocyte inflammation and this could pot...

Background: Despite the lack of drugs, conservative management of childhood obesity allows for considerable weight reduction.Objective and hypotheses: i) To evaluate anthropometric and metabolic changes in obese children after intense weight loss. ii) To analyze the influence of the amount of weight loss and the time spent to attain it on the observed changes. iii) To investigate BMI evolution during the first 3 years after weight reduction.<p class=...

Background: Genomic imprinting causes genes to be expressed or repressed depending on their parental origin. The 1-Mb DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain is located on human chromosome 14. Gene expression along this cluster is regulated by an intergenic differentially methylated imprinting control region (‘IG-DMR’). In mice, altered gene dosage within this cluster is associated with alterations in embryonic and placental growth.Objective and hy...