ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: The diagnosis of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is a challenge due to the complexity of its pathophysiology and the variety of clinical manifestations. Female newborns (NB) with classical forms present virilization of the external genitalia while in boys it is usually normal. Salt-losers boys and girls are highly susceptible to develop acute adrenal insufficiency and death in the first weeks of life; for these reasons, Neonatal Screening (NS) programs have ...

Introduction: Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) is characterized by a complete external genitalia appearance and testicular development in 46,XY individuals harboring pathogenic allelic variants in the AR gene. Due to growing evidence regarding the low risk of germ cell tumors (GCT) in AIS. Prophylactic gonadectomy has been debatable in the CAIS management, mainly due to the absence of an accurate biomarker for GCT....

Background: MEHMO (microcephaly, epilepsy, hypogenitalism, mental retardation, obesity) is a rare disorder with X-linked inheritance. Only three families with this disorder were described previously, with the linkage to a region on X chromosome. No specific gene has been identified so far.Aims and objectives: The aim was to identify the genetic etiology in two unrelated Slovak male probands (4.5 and 1.5 years old respectively) with the clinical diagnosis...

Background/Introduction: Whole exome sequencing (WES) revolutionized clinical genetics in patients with differences of sex development (DSD). However, our ability to interpret WES data is limited by our incomplete understanding of the mechanisms involved in DSD. Thus, we created a methodology that scores potential candidates based on single cells transcriptomics of human male gonadal cells and applied it to WES data from a cohort of genetically male (46,XY) DS...

Introduction: Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) is subdivided into two depots by the fascia of Scarpa. The deep SAT (dSAT) and superficial SAT (sSAT) are morphologically and metabolically distinct, with dSAT reportedly being more similar to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in terms of elevating the risk for obesity-related complications. Conversely, sSAT appears to be more similar to lower-body SAT. The relationship between dSAT and metabolic disease ha...

Background: Pubertal growth and adult height are important to many transgender adolescents undergoing medical transition. However, few studies are available on the impact of puberty suppression (PS) with GnRH analogues (GnRHa) and hormonal therapy (HT) with testosterone on growth. In this longitudinal cohort study, we investigated the effect of PS and HT on growth and adult height in transgender boys.Methods: A total of ...

Background: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be suppressed at birth. In most infants this is tolerated well. HPA testing in infancy often generates ‘abnormal’ results although abnormalities of the HPA may not be identified and cortisol measurements often ‘normalise’ over time.[1]Aim: To contribute to the evidence base on neonatal HPA activity by reporting outcomes of infants age &...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules and play an important role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and thereby influence important cellular functions. In adipocytes, miRNAs regulate key processes such as differentiation, inflammation, metabolism, and adipokine secretion. Recently, we found that miR-27a is upregulated under proinflammatory conditions in human adipocytes. Thus, our goal was to better understand the function of miR-27a in a...

Introduction: Variegated mosaic aneuploidy syndrome (MVA) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by a variable percentage of chromosomal gains and losses, resulting in multiple mosaic aneuploidies, which explains a great phenotypic variety and may predispose to the development of cancer. Bi-allelic mutations in CEP57 are the cause of MVA2. CEP57 encodes a centrosome protein involved in microtubule stabilization and is crucial for maintaining prope...

Background: Determination of the gonads in men is closely dependent on Sertoli cells differentiation and maturation. Many cases of differences of sex development (DSD) are caused by variations in these processes. The study of the mechanisms underlying these complex conditions is crucial for optimal clinical management and Sertoli cells would be an ideal model for this purpose. Our human Sertoli-like cell model (SLCs) may shed some light on the identification o...