ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: The Glucagon-like Peptide(GLP1)-analogue liraglutide is the first drug approved for the treatment of obesity in adolescents in Europe. While clinically relevant effects of liraglutide treatment in adolescents with obesity had been shown in a phase III study, there are no reports about the use under real-life conditions in these patients. Our aim was to report the effect of treatment with liraglutide on body weight loss in a cohort of adolescents ...

Background: Decreasing age at the onset of puberty is observed worldwide, several countries report also increasing incidence trends of central precocious puberty (CPP), and some observed an importantly higher number of CPP cases during the COVID19 pandemic. Scarce data report also rising trends in isolated precocious adrenarche (IPA) and isolated precocious telarche (IPT).Objectives: To determine the national incidence a...

Introduction: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare congenital neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by hyperphagia, growth hormone (GH) deficiency, short stature, and low bone mineral density. The mechanisms concerning bone metabolism disturbances in these patients are still unclear. An important role in the process of bone formation is played by osteocalcin (OC), the most abundant non-collagen protein of the bone matrix. OC has three potential gamma-carb...

Background: Dent’s disease is an X-linked recessive proximal tubulopathy characterized by low molecular weight proteinuria, hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis, nephrolithiasis, and progressive renal failure. Growth retardation, due to resistance to GH action is a feature commonly associated with Dent’s disease.Case report: We describe a boy diagnosed with Dent disease, treated with recombinant human GH. He was initially referred at 6 years of age...

Background: X-linked congenital adrenal hypoplasia (adrenal hypoplasia congenita, AHC) is a rare life-threating disorder due to pathogenic variants in the NR0B1 gene. It encodes DAX-1, an orphan nuclear hormone receptor, that acts as a transcription factor and is expressed in the adrenals and hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Therefore, apart from primary adrenal insufficiency, patients present incomplete or absent puberty and infertility due...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. One of its negative effects is lower final adult height (FAH) due to premature epiphyseal closure. GnRH analogues act by desensitizing GnRH receptors and stopping the progression of puberty and prolonging growth period.Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effect of the GnRH analogue on FAH and identify facto...

Introduction: Recently novel approaches, through implementation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in clinical practice for genetic evaluation of idiopathic short stature, has permitted to identify new variants of genes which modulate function of growth plate, including heterozygous mutations of the aggrecan gene. Aggrecan, a large chondroitin sulfated proteoglycan, is a major structural component of the extracellular matrix of cartilage, including growth pla...

Introduction: Obesity is the direct cause of a number of immediate problems during childhood. Recently, fat mass was described as a significant negative predictor of serum iron. Hepcidin is a hormone stimulated by an increase in plasma iron levels and iron deposits in tissues, and decreases iron release from macrophages and duodenal enterocytes into the plasma. This protein prevents excessive iron absorption and iron accumulation in tissues. Ferritin is the most commonly deplo...

Background: Growth hormone plays a primary role in stimulating postnatal growth by way of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) which is produced in the liver in response to GH. A deficiency of GH arrests maturation during childhood, and the stature of such subjects is generally much shorter than the average stature. However, some cases of GH deficiency attain normal stature as adults.Case presentation: A 20 years old man was referred for a further evaluat...

Background: Peptide hormones synthesized in gastrointestinal tract (GI) and adipose tissues, in addition to neuropeptides, regulate growth and body weight in children. The GI microflora (i.e. Candida albicans – CA and Helicobacter pylori – HP) is an antigenic source. Based on the molecular mimicry hypothesis, intestinal microbe-derived antigens may trigger the production of autoantibodies cross-reacting with regulatory peptides.<p class="abstext...