ESPE Abstracts

Background: Congenital growth hormone deficiency may be isolated (IGHD) or multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (MPHD). The Sonic Hedgehog signalling (SHH) pathway has an important role in the pituitary development and growth, acting early in ventral forebrain. The SHH signalling mediates its effects through three zinc fingers proteins (Gli1, Gli2 and Gli3), which lead to activation or repression of target genes. Several heterozygous GLI2 mutations have been reported in patie...

Background: In children, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is generally sporadic and may, less frequently, be part of an undiagnosed hereditary tumor predisposition syndrome (HTPS). Somatic molecular testing is useful to understand tumor etiology and behavior, predict prognosis, and possibly guide development of novel treatment strategies. RET/PTC fusions were found to be associated with an increased risk of invasive disease. The aims of our study were to analyze...

Background: A total of 456 skeletal dysplasias have been classified by molecular, biochemical and/or radiological criteria, into 40 groups. Despite this, the precise, final diagnosis is often difficult due to the high phenotypic and genotypic variability.Objective: To improve the molecular and clinical diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias using a custom-designed next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel.Method: A total of 56 skeletal dysp...

Background: Being born small for gestational age (SGA) is an associated condition to nonspecific 46,XY DSD (without molecular diagnosis and with no specific disorders of undermasculinization). However, the underlying mechanism of the relationship between the presence of genital abnormalities and intrauterine growth restriction is unknown. The GH-IGF system is crucial for sex differentiation in mice and in humans, members of this system were detected in embryon...

Introduction: Menarche is the time of first menstrual bleed and it occurs, on average, 2 to 2.5 years after the onset of puberty. Globally, the age of menarche had been reduced since the last century.Objective: To examine the evolution of the age of menarche over the last decades and inter-regional variability in an autonomous community located in northern Spain which is divided in eight health areas.<p class="abstex...

Background: Osteoporosis is a complex disorder, influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. Primary osteoporosis is a rare early onset disorder with high morbidity and mortality. Wnt signaling pathway has been shown to be involved in the regulation of bone remodeling.Case: Native Argentinean boy born from a consanguineous family with history of retinal detachment in the maternal line. Delivered at term, birth weight 2900 g (−0.95 SDS), bi...

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are those congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical. The aim of this study was to characterize the histology of 46,XX DSD prepubertal gonads. We studied 25 gonads of fourteen 46,XX DSD patients. The age of biopsy/gonadectomy was 1.17 (0.08–4.17) years (median and range). Molecular studies confirmed the absence of SRY by PCR and/or MLPA in blood samples of all patients and i...

Background: In Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a hereditary disease in which AR mutations in 46,XY patients present with partial (PAIS) or complete (CAIS) defects in virilisation.Objective and hypotheses: The aim was to analyze the effect of lack of androgen action in germ cell (GC) health and survival along postnatal development, previous to Sertoli cell (SC) pubertal maturation.Method: The histological features and quant...

Background: Carriers of germline DICER1 mutations are predisposed to a rare cancer syndrome, the DICER1 syndrome, associated with tumors such as pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB), ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors (SLCT), multinodular goiter (MNG), cystic nephroma (CN), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) or primitive neuroectodermic tumor. DICER1 is involved in the generation of microRNAs (miRNAs), short, double-stranded, non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression at ...

Background: The SRY protein is a transcription factor that contains a high mobility group (HMG) homeobox domain which possesses sequence-specific DNA binding activity and regulates other genes involved in male sex determination pathway. The majority of the identified mutations occurred within the HMG-box motif. There are few reports of pedigrees with familial transmission.Objective and Hypotheses: To describe a paternally transmitted novel SRY mutation w...