ESPE Abstracts

Background: In addition to its function in circadian rhythm Melatonin plays an important role in energy metabolism and body weight regulation. In animals pinealectomy induces insulin resistance and administration of melatonin to diabetes prone rats ameliorates their glucose metabolism. Furthermore loss-of-function mutations of the melatonin receptor gene are associated with insulin resistance and DM II in humans.Objective and hypotheses: So far the effec...

Introduction: Childhood obesity shows increasing numbers worldwide and presents as a global health issue due to multiple metabolic comorbidities. About 1 % of adolescents with obesity develop type 2 diabetes (T2D), however little is known about the genetic and pathophysiological background in young age. Genome-wide association studies in adults revealed genes with increased diabetes risk, most of them regulating insulin secretion. The objective of this study w...

Background: Few previous studies suggested an association between insulin resistance (IR) and TSH serum levels in euthyroid patients. This relation could have some particularities in populations characterized by intrinsic insulin resistance like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study was to study the relationship between IR and TSH serum levels in adolescent euthyroid PCOS patients....

Background: Triple A syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by adrenal failure, alacrima, achalasia, and a variety of neurological features. In 70% of the families it is caused by mutations in the AAAS gene. Linkage analyses indicated genetic heterogeneity and exome sequencing revealed two further genes causing triple A-like syndromes.Objective and hypotheses: To summarise the genotypes and phenotypes of classic triple A s...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a disorder characterised by dysregulation of insulin secretion that leads to severe hypoglycaemia in neonates and infants. The focal form of CHI is caused by an autosomal recessive mutation in the genes ABCC8 or KCNJ11 inherited from the father and a second somatic event in the affected islet of Langerhans.Objective: We report molecular genetic examination of focal pancreatic lesions of patients receiving t...

Background: Pathogenic IGFI gene mutations causing childhood growth failure are rare. Only 5 autosomal recessive mutations, one IGFI copy number variant and 2 heterozygous frameshift mutations are reported. Heterozygous missense IGFI mutations have not previously been described.Objectives: To identify and functionally characterise a novel missense IGFI variant in a patient with postnat...

Background: Growth Hormone Insensitivity (GHI) is usually caused by mutations in the Growth Hormone receptor (GHR). Patients present with short stature associated with high GH and low IGF-I levels and often have midfacial hypoplasia (typical Laron syndrome facial features). Our centre previously described the first GHR pseudoexon mutation (42700896A>G, c. 618+792A>G). The inclusion of this 108bp pseudoexon is predicted to lead to in-frame insertion of...

Background: Noonan syndrome (NS) is caused by variants in multiple genes regulating the RAS/MAPK signalling cascade. NS can present with growth failure associated with growth hormone insensitivity (GHI; low IGF-I and normal/elevated GH levels). Variants in LZTR1 lead to NS, although the interaction of LZTR1 with the RAS/MAPK and the GH-IGF-1 pathways remain to be elucidated.Objectives: To gain insights into the ...

Background: Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents is a rare disease with an estimated incidence (age 0–20 years) of below 5/100 000 in Germany.Objective and Hypotheses: We hypothesize that monogenic alterations might contribute to early-onset insulin secretion defects, if islet function was challenged by obesity-associated insulin resistance.Method: We follow more than 1500 children and adolescents with obesity. Patients...

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are most relevant for morbidity and mortality in obese patients. Because metabolic complications already start in childhood obesity one may expect an early manifestation of cardiovascular disease in this group as young adults. In adults fetuin A was shown to promote adipocyte inflammation and metabolic syndrome and subsequently vascular damage.Objective and hypotheses: We evaluated the role of fetuin A in the vascular ...