ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Wolfram syndrome (WS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by the association of early-onset, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetes insipidus, deafness, and progressive optic atrophy. The disease is caused by mutations of wfs1 located on 4p16 encoding peptide that is called wolframin. Wolframin is a component of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. It is considered that mutant Wolframin might cause increased misfolded and...

Background: Pubertal gynecomastia is a common condition appearing in up to 65% of adolescent boys. However, if male breast development is over B3–B4 and lasts more than 2–3 years, persistent pubertal gynecomastia (PPG) may be the sign of serious endocrine disease and the source of considerable psychological discomfort.Objective and hypotheses: We investigated a cohort of 24 adolescents with PPG followed at the Pediatric Endocrinogy Unit over a ...

Background: The common phenotype caused by NR5A1 mutations of 46,XY is gonadal dysgenesis without adrenal deficiency. Preserved fertility of the affected males was described in two patients with different mutations. No functional analysis of these two mutations has been done. Here we report brothers with isolated hypospadias who carries a novel heterozygous mutation of c.910G>A, E304K in NR5A1 gene. Their asymptomatic father carries the same nucleotide ch...

Background: ALS deficient (ALS-D) patients present severe IGFI and IGFBP3 deficiencies and variable degree of growth retardation. Heterozygous carriers for IGFALS variants, ALS-D relatives or a subset of ISS children, have levels of IGFI, IGFBP3 and ALS intermediate between ALS-D and wildtype (WT) subjects. This supports that IGFALS gene variants may affect ALS synthesis, secretion and/or function and could be responsible for the observed phenotype.<p cla...

Diabetes mellitus is a pandemic metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia. The pathogenic process is the result of insulin insufficiency. Insulin is a peptide hormone produced in the beta cells of the pancreatic islets. Current diabetes treatments strive for glycemic control but fail to solve the underlying beta cell defect. This approach has increased the life expectancy and quality of most patients with diabetes but has turned diabetes into a chronic disease....

Introduction: Variants in the N-terminal of the Indian-hedgehog gene (IHH) have been associated with Brachydactyly type-A1 (AD) and Acrocapitofemoral dysplasia (AR), only three of which have been functionally studied. However, heterozygous IHH variants, majority classified as variants of unknown significance (VUS) are being increasingly identified, not only in the N-terminal but also in the uncharacterized C-terminal, by NGS, in individuals with short...

Background: Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) plays a key role in reproduction. The G-protein coupled FSH receptor (FSHR), is expressed primarily in gonads, and specifically binds FSH. FSHR is also expressed in vascular endothelium, osteoclasts, adipose tissue, monocytes and rodent pancreatic islets. Elevated FSH levels are associated with development of obesity, insulin resistance, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. In a recent study, we showed that h...

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is autoimmune T cells mediated destruction of β-cells. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered a promising treatment for T1DM due to the strong immunosuppressive and regenerative capacity. However, the comprehensive mechanism is still unclear. Our previous study indicated that the transforming growth factor beta-induced gene (TGFBI) is highly expressed in human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs), which is also implicated...

Introduction: The thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) has a key role in the thyroid gland. It is involved in folliculogenesis, differentiation, organogenesis, and thyroid hormone synthesis and production. Its genetic defects can cause poor differentiation (thyroid dysgenesis) and/or thyroid malfunction (thyroid dyshormonogenesis, TD). Therefore, its phenotype spectrum is wide, ranging from severe congenital hypothyroidism (CH) to mild hyperthyrotropinemia. Some hetero...

Human sex development relies on differentiation of the gonads, in which Sertoli and granulosa cells play a key role for men and women respectively. Many variations of sex development (VSD) are due to alteration of these two cell types. The study of the mechanisms underlying these conditions is crucial for optimal clinical management of VSDs, as for more than 50% [1] of all VSD patients, the molecular cause of their condition remains unknown. The collection of primary cells is ...