ESPE Abstracts

Background: Imprinted genes are known to regulate fetal growth and a ‘parental conflict’ model predicts that paternally and maternally expressed imprinted genes promote and inhibit fetal growth, respectively. GNAS is a complex imprinted locus with multiple oppositely imprinted gene products. Maternal, but not paternal, G(s)alpha mutations lead to obesity in pseudohypoparathyroidism type IA (PHPIA). However, the disorder rarely causes severe obesity in infancy as pred...

Background: The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis responds to several acute or chronic environmental stessors, including those of social stress.Objective and hypotheses: To assess the HPA axis acute response during mental stress and mobile phone call exposure in healthy adolescents through salivary cortisol measurements and to investigate the modulatory effect of baseline biochemical or low-inflammation markers during this response....

Background: The GHR-exon3 and the -202 A/C IGFBP3 polymorphisms have been suggested to affect responses to recombinant human GH (rhGH) therapy in some individuals with short stature. This study aimed to assess the influences of the two polymorphisms on treatment outcomes in patients with GH deficiency (GHD).Method: In 72 (32 girls and 40 boys) children with confirmed diagnosis of GHD, genotyping and serial measurements of auxological and endocrinological...

Background: The central melanocortin system is highly involved in the control of energy metabolism, receiving and integrating numerous metabolic signals, such as leptin, and biallelic mutations in several genes of the pathway have been reported in severe obesity. However, whether and how heterozygous rare sequence variants (hetRSVs) in genes of this satiety pathway contribute to the development of obesity is poorly explored.Objec...

Background: Autoimmune thyroid diseases are multifactorial diseases with a genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. A potential role of the protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 22 (PTPN22) gene, the interferon induced helicase domain 1 (IFIH1) gene, the TSH receptor (TSH-R) gene polymorphisms on autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) in children has not been established equivocally yet.Objective and hypotheses: To estimate the association...

Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited, systemic disease characterized by deficient tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase activity. Common manifestations in children include impaired skeletal mineralization, short stature, and reduced physical function. Asfotase alfa is an enzyme replacement therapy approved for treatment of patients of any age with pediatric-onset HPP. The utility of dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as a diagnostic tool or measure of treatment effective...

Background: Previously we showed that pubertal children born small for gestational age (SGA) with a poor adult height (AH) expectation can benefit from treatment with GH 1 mg/m2 per day (~0.033 mg/kg per day) in combination with 2 years of GnRH analogue (GnRHa) and even more so with a double GH dose. GnRHa treatment is thought to have negative effects on body composition and blood pressure. Long-term effects and GH-dose effects on metabolic health in children treate...

Introduction: Turner's syndrome (TS) is associated with several manifestations the most frequent being short stature and hypogonadism. Some authors (Nadeem, 2012; Bakalov, 2008) reported that individuals with TS have increased risk of fractures, but the etiology and mechanism of bone fragility have not been yet fully elucidated and may be exacerbated by hormonal factors (Cintron, 2017; Soucek, 2015). Bone densitometry (BD) through the emission of double en...

Introduction: Ovary development was once considered a largely passive process. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) approaches have allowed us to begin to characterise ovary development in previously unparalleled detail, revealing the process to be complex and, still, little understood. A challenge is synthesising and using these data to advance our understanding of clinical disease. Through a clinically-focused lens, we elucidate novel aspects of the transcriptional lands...

Background: Pubertal children born small for gestational age (SGA) with a poor adult height (AH) expectation can benefit from treatment with GH 1 mg/m2 per day (~0.033 mg/kg per day) in combination with 2 years of GnRH analogue (2 years GnRHa) and even more so with 2 mg/m2 per day (~0.067 mg/kg per day). Concerns haven been raised about the effects of GH and GnRHa on insulin sensitivity on the long-term.Objective and hypotheses: To ...