ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid hormones regulate body composition and metabolism, and are among the key drivers of body growth and maturation. In children, associations of cardio-metabolic measures with the circulating prohormone thyroxine (T4) have been extensively studied, but not with active triiodothyronine (T3). In apparently healthy children, we studied whether circulating free T3 (fT3) [and its ratio with free T4 (fT3/fT4)] associates with cardio-metabolic measu...

Background and aims: Studies in adults and experimental animals suggest an inverse and bidirectional relationship between cognitive abilities and obesity. Clinical studies on cognition and obesity in children are scarce and methodologically heterogeneous. Indeed, various factors related to obesity including diet, physical activity, socioeconomic status and maternal obesity can affect neuropsychological development. We aimed to study the cognitive function in s...

Introduction and objectives: Imprinted genes have been broadly related to prenatal growth regulation. PEG10 is a maternally imprinted gene involved in cellular proliferation that is mainly expressed in the placenta and in some adult tissues. In mice, mutations in this gene have been related to growth restriction of both the embryo and the placenta. Nevertheless, its role in postnatal growth has not yet been established. We aimed to study prospectively the rela...

Mutations in genes of the RAS/MAPK signalling pathway have been shown to cause several syndromes characterized by dysmorphic features, growth retardation, cognitive impairment, heart disease and cutaneous abnormalities. The GHrh treatment has been used to improve growth in children with Noonan syndrome.Material and methods: 201 cases of patients referred with clinical suspicion of S. Noonan and other RASopathies was studied. Analysis of ...

Background and Objectives: Offspring born to obese mothers are at an increased risk of chronic disease including type 2 diabetes (T2D), obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). This metabolic programming is produced, in part, by epigenetic changes such us DNA methylation. We postulated that obesity exposure impacts the offspring's methylome and used an epigenomic approa...

Background: Accelerated catch-up growth following intrauterine growth restriction increases the risk of developing visceral adiposity and metabolic syndrome. Animal models of growth restriction during gestation have been developed as a powerful tool to provide insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms thereof.Objective: To analyze the patterns of gene expression in the retroperitoneal adipose tissue of rats with i...

Background: Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a well-known marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. The distribution of adipose tissue among visceral fat reservoirs rather than the total adipose tissue mass is more likely to be related to subclinical atherosclerosis.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether epicardial and perirenal fat are more related to cIMT than body adiposity in prepubertal child...

Background: Low serum bilirubin and high serum triglycerides are independently associated with higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Both bilirubin and triglycerides can regulate insulin secretion and glucose uptake. This is a first longitudinal study in healthy children to associate bilirubin and the bilirubin/triglycerides ratio with metabolic markers.Objectives: Analyze independent associations between bilirub...

Background and Aim: IRS1 (Insulin Receptor Substrate 1) is involved in the insulin signalling pathway and abnormalities thereof have been related to metabolic disorders and obesity. In obese subjects, insulin resistance has been associated with changes in IRS1 expression in peripheral in blood. Sex-based differences in cardiovascular disease are well established. Previous results from our group disclosed the association between IRS1 placental methylation with ...

Introduction and aims: MEST (Mesoderm-specific transcript), a candidate gene for Silver-Russell syndrome, is a paternally expressed imprinted gene that positively regulates foetal growth. MEST has also been shown to promote adipose tissue expansion in conditions of positive energy balance. In this context, our objective was to study the possible relationship between placental MEST gene expression and postnatal growth and obesity para...