ESPE Abstracts

Background: Gestational obesity has not only adverse effects on the mothers’ health but also on the developing fetus. Newborns of obese pregnant women have increased birth weight and increased risk for obesity and associated diseases in adulthood. The mechanisms by which maternal nutrition induce these changes in the offspring may involve microRNAs (miRNAs) regulation.Aims and objectives: To study the associations between circulating miRNAs altered ...

Background: miRNAs are valuable circulating biomarkers and therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases. A differential pattern of miRNAs has been described in pregnant women with preeclampsia or gestational diabetes; however, it is unknown whether maternal obesity affects the profile of circulating miRNAs.Aims and objectives: To define the circulating pattern of miRNAs in pregestational and gestational obesity; and to explore their associations with mater...

Background: It is well known that ingestion of a high fat diet (HFD) can induce rapid weight gain and metabolic imbalances. However, males and females are not equally susceptible to these effects. Furthermore, an individual may be more prone to gain weight during specific developmental periods.Aims and objectives: We aimed to analyse the response to the acute exposure to a HFD during pubertal/adolescent period and to determine whether males and females r...

Background: Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) deficiency (PORD) is a form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and results in steroid-production loss from cytochrome P450 proteins. Mutations in POR cause mild to severe forms of CAH with/without bone malformation symptoms resembling Antley-Bixler syndrome. We report a novel POR Arg550Trp mutation identified in a 46,XX patient with signs of aromatase (ARO) deficiency. Child (first pregnancy) and mother pr...

Background: DLK1 (PREF1) is a key inhibitor of adipogenesis and adipocyte differentiation. Adipose tissue expansion depends on adequate adipocyte differentiation. However, whether lower DLK1 expression facilitates adipose tissue expansion following fetal growth restriction is so far unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study the expression of DLK1 in the adipose tissue of prenatally growth-restricted rats and its relat...

Background: Soluble CD163 (sCD163) is shed from the cell surface into the circulation as a specific marker of macrophage activation. Macrophages are involved in low-grade inflammatory states such as obesity.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the relationships between circulating sCD163 and metabolic parameters in asymptomatic prepubertal children.Method: A population of 236 school-aged Caucasian children (111 girls and 125 bo...

Background: Prolonged poor dietary habits can result in hypothalamic inflammation and gliosis with more recent studies suggest that other brain areas may also be affected. Western or high fat diet intake has been associated with increased cognitive impairment and aberrant feeding behavior, with males and females being differentially affected. The hippocampus participates in both of these functions. Saturated free fatty acids can induce astrocyte inflammation and this could pot...

Background: Genomic imprinting causes genes to be expressed or repressed depending on their parental origin. The 1-Mb DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain is located on human chromosome 14. Gene expression along this cluster is regulated by an intergenic differentially methylated imprinting control region (‘IG-DMR’). In mice, altered gene dosage within this cluster is associated with alterations in embryonic and placental growth.Objective and hy...

Background: Maternal obesity can have long-term consequences for the offspring’s health, including increased risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The C19MC imprinted locus on chromosome 19q13.4 comprises a cluster of 46 microRNAs, which are usually expressed only in the placenta and from the paternal allele exclusively. Besides its role favouring trophoblast migration, the C19MC locus is deregulated in several human cancers. It is unknown ...

Background: Neonatal over-nutrition (NON) can have a long-term effects on energy homeostasis and some of these effects may be sexually dimorphic.Objective and hypotheses: We aimed to determine how NON affects body weight (BW), body composition and cytokine levels throughout development and if these changes are sexually dimorphic. We hypothesised that the effects would be both age and sex dependant.Methods: At birth, Wistar rats wer...