ESPE Abstracts

Background: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) exhibit wide variations in the activity of growth hormone (GH)/insulin–like growth factor–I (IGF-I) axis and this heterogeneity may result in supra physiological concentrations of IGF-I during GH treatment. The long-term effects of elevated IGF-I levels has been a matter of concern. We explored the variations in total IGF-I and bioactive IGF-I and the associations with growth and glucose metab...

Background: Obesity in females is often associated with metabolic complications and hyperandrogenism but the role of adipose tissue (AT) in androgen synthesis remains unclear.Aims/Objectives: Employing human subcutaneous and visceral AT and cultured adipocytes, we studied whether AT could be a source of androgens promoting hyperandrogenism in lean and especially in obese females.Methods</st...

Summary Answer: The majority of the expert panel states that ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC)should be offered to young females with Turner syndrome (TS)Background: OTC is a valid option to preserve the fertility of young females at risk of iatrogenic premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). Offering OTC to females with a genetic cause of POI seems a logical next step. One of the most common genetic disorders related ...

Aims: The golden standard to characterize pubertal maturation is the analysis of steroid hormones in the blood. The aim of the investigation was to assess whether the analysis of salivary steroids is similarly able to characterize male pubertal development.Methods: The investigation included 165 normal boys (mean age 12.7±2.8 years, mean body mass index 19.6±4.2 kg/m2). Pubic hair stages were stratified by Tanner and testicular volum...

Background: The androgen receptor (AR) is essential for the development of primary and secondary male characteristics and is activated by its ligand dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Reduced AR activity can cause undervirilization and infertility. We recently developed an assay to test AR function as a ligand-dependent transcriptional activator in human genital skin fibroblasts (GF). So far it is unclear, if AR expression levels correlate with AR function in the male external genital...

Background: Short stature caused by point mutations or deletions of the short stature homeobox (SHOX) gene (SHOX haploinsufficiency, SHI) is a registered indication for growth hormone (GH) treatment. Patients with a SHOX enhancer deletion (SED) have a similar phenotype, but their response to GH is unknown. It is uncertain if duplications of SHOX or its enhancer (SDUP) can cause short stature.Objective and hypotheses: To describe the clinical characterist...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism is the most common cause of persistent hypoglycaemia in early infancy. Mutations in the HNF4A gene lead to transient hyperinsulinism in early infancy and maturity-onset diabetes of youth (MODY1), later in life. Fanconi syndrome is a generalised dysfunction of the renal proximal tubule with a loss of glucose, amino acids, phosphate, low molecular weight proteins, bicarbonate and urate, causing growth failure and rickets in childho...

Drosophila melanogaster as a study model has already significantly contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms of many human diseases. So far D. melanogaster has rarely been exploited as a model for human sex development. Nanda et.al already demonstrated in 2009 that the Drosophila orthologue of SOX9, Sox100B is essential for testis development in Drosophila. Similarly, we could demonstrate that the fly homolog of STARD8, cv-c</...

Background: Paediatric obesity is a multifactorial disease characterized by an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. In rare cases, obesity is caused by underlying medical disorders arising from disruptions in the leptin-melanocortin pathway, which regulates satiety and energy expenditure.Aim: To investigate resting energy expenditure (REE) in relation to body composition in children and adolescents with sever...

We introduce the ReTRIACt Trial (NCT05579327) of tiratricol (Triac) for MCT8-deficiency, a rare X-linked disease resulting from disordered thyroid hormone transport and characterized by profound neurodevelopmental delay and features of chronic peripheral thyrotoxicosis. The ReTRIACt Trial aims to verify the effects of tiratricol observed in previous studies. It is a double-blind, randomized, multicenter, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the effects of tiratricol discontinu...