ESPE Abstracts

The development of obesity begins early in life. From our large observational studies we know that the age between 3-6 years appears critical for development of obesity in children and once established, childhood obesity regularly persists into adulthood leading to premature morbidity and even mortality. In addition to the mere expansion of fat mass with developing childhood obesity, there are alterations in adipose tissue function such as adipocyte hypertrophy, inflammation a...

Background: Serious mental and physical retardation are sequelae of untreated congenital hypothyroidism. These complications have become rare since the introduction of neonatal screening in Germany.Case report: Here we report about a girl with congenital hypothyroidism, who suffered from extreme short and thickset stature, rough facial features and straw-like hair at the age of 12 years. She had been detected in newborn screening with a TSH of 132 IU/ml....

Background: The new adipokine/myokine meteorin-like (Metrnl) has been proposed to be of interest for obesity and metabolic disease through its potential role for brown/beige fat thermogenesis and macrophage activation in mice. METRNL was reported to be expressed in white adipose tissue (AT) and upregulated during adipogenesis and by exercise and.Aims: In this study we analysed the expression of METRNL during human adipogenesis and its regulation...

Background: Obesity is characterized by an increase in fat mass caused by an increase in adipocyte number and adipocyte size and is often associated with adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction contributing to metabolic impairment. It is suspected that adipocyte progenitor cells play an important role during healthy and obesity-related AT expansion. Studies in adults showed that the stroma vascular fraction (SVF) of AT is composed of different progenitor cell subpopul...

Background and Objective: Obesity is known to affect pubertal timing. However, existing data are still controversial, observing either delayed or accelerated pubertal onset, especially among boys. Herein, we evaluated pubertal milestones and underlying hormonal changes between lean and obese children.Material and Methods: We examined 13,484 events from 4,855 lean (BMI SDS <1.28) and 1,983 obese (BMI SDS > 1.88) c...

Background: The leptin signaling cascade is a crucial regulator of satiety and energy homeostasis in the hypothalamus, comprising extracellular leptin binding to its receptor, phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) and consecutively the generation of a central satiety signal via neuropeptide secretion. We identified three variants in the extracellular domains of the LEPR gene in two children with severe ...

Background: Rodent models of leptin inactivity show progressive obesity due to exaggerated food intake. In humans, only rare monogenic cases of leptin deficiency and almost absent circulating leptin levels have been identified. Recently, two cases of children with early onset massive obesity due to biofunctionally inactive leptin in the face of normal total levels have been identified.Objective and hypotheses: Here we aimed to identify leptin inactivity ...

Background: Evaluation of glucose metabolism is currently based on 2 h glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) or fasting glucose and insulin or A1c, as these are the only parameters where cutoff values exist. This does, however, not adequately reflect the degree of hyperinsulinemia due to insulin resistance in obese children.Objective and design: From frequent glucose and insulin levels during an oGTT of 64 healthy lean children (aged 7.7&#...

Background: In adults it has been shown, that GHmax values after provocation testing are negatively correlated to BMI. Preliminary studies in children have found a similar correlation. Consequently children with elevated BMI would be overdiagnosed with GHD. However, studies so far were too small to define this correlation exactly. This would be a condition to judge whether and to what extend adjustments of GH cut-off levels should be considered also in children with elevated B...

Context: Childhood obesity is supposed to affect growth and development in children but there is uncertainty with regard to dynamics and potential causes. We analyzed differences in age-related growth patterns of obese and normal-weight children and their association with circulating endocrine and metabolic factors.Objective/Design: In a large German childhood cohort from Leipzig including 7986 children (22793 data sets) we compared cross-sectional and l...