ESPE Abstracts

Background: Hypopituitarism is characterized by deficiency of one or more anterior pituitary hormones. POU1F1 mutations are the second most frequent known cause of combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD). Patients are typically deficient in GH, TSH, and prolactin, although two unrelated cases were reported with isolated GH deficiency (IGHD). To date, all POU1F1 mutations have been reported for the predominantly expressed alpha isoform, which is a transcr...

Background: Body weight has a close correlation with bone mass in humans and high fracture rates has been reported in both obese and underweighted individuals. It is not clear the role of bone marrow adiposity (BMA) and the IGF system in this process.Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze bone composition and BMA in obese and non-obese children/adolescents and correlate them with the expression of the IGF type-1 receptor (IGF1R) in peripheral lymphocy...

Background: The diagnosis of 46,XY disorder of sex development (DSD) due to 5-alpha reductase 2 (5α-RD2) deficiency has been based on testosterone:dihydrotestosterone (T:DHT) ratio, urinary steroid profiling and mutational analysis of SRD5A2 gene. The biochemical hallmarks of 5α-RD2 deficiency include increased T:DHT ratio. However, several difficulties are observed in the DHT measurement leading to misdiagnosis. The mutational analysis of the SRD5A2 has been propose...

Background: Mutations in SHOX or its regulatory regions have been detected in ~70% of Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) and ~2.5% of idiopathic short stature (ISS) cases, suggesting the implication of other genes or loci. Recent studies have identified NPR2 defects in ISS patients.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate if NPR2 mutations can account for a proportion of the cases referred for LWD and ISS in whom no SHOX/PAR1 mutation was detected.<...

Introduction: The majority of children with short stature are classified as ISS by the absence of findings that could elucidate the cause of their growth impairment. Several monogenic defects have already been identified in children with ISS, but the candidate gene approach is not feasible when there are no specific findings to guide a specific genetic test.Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic yield of a targeted gene p...

Context: Differences in sex development (DSD) represent a broad spectrum of conditions that can present at different ages to various healthcare professionals with different backgrounds.Design: This is a retrospective, observational cohort that includes all DSD subjects referred to a multi-professional DSD team over a period of 41 years (from 1980 to 2021).Participants: A total of 6...

Despite significant advances in the medical management of childhood diseases, glucocorticoids (GCs) continue to be the mainstay of therapy for numerous serious conditions, including hematological malignancies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and inflammatory disorders. In order to understand the natural history of bone development in GC-treated children, a pan-Canadian longitudinal observational research study called "STOPP" (STeroid...

Catch-up growth (CUG) is characterized by a period of supranormal height velocity following a transient period of growth inhibition. The two classical hypotheses on the mechanism are the neuro-endocrine hypothesis (a central mechanism that would recognize the degree of mismatch between actual size and target size) and the growth plate hypothesis (local regulation of growth according to a preset cellular program of senescence, characterized by decreasing growth proliferation ra...

Study of the histopathology of human type 1 and 2 diabetes through the national pancreatic organ donor (nPOD) consortium has yielded interesting new insights that should also aid us in developing improved therapeutic approaches.1. When insulitis is observed, it usually shows a predominance of CD8 T cells, some of which are autoantigen specific (see also Coppieters et al. JEM 2012). It will be therapeutically challenging to remove/prevent CD8 mem...

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM). Dyslipidemia will increase this risk. Several guidelines have been published, how to treat dyslipidemia in T1DM, yet some studies have shown that the number of patients who are treated according to these guidelines is low.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the frequency of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents with T1DM and if they are tr...