ESPE Abstracts

Background: The placenta plays a key role in regulating fatty acid (FA) transport from maternal to fetal circulation. An unfavourable FA profile in the placenta, reflecting an inadequate nutritional status during pregnancy, may cause changes in placental DNA methylation and negatively affect fetal growth and metabolic health of the offspring.Objectives: We aimed to study the association of an unfavourable placental FA profile with placental DNA methylati...

Up to 50% of children born SGA at 2 years have not made a correct catch up (by excess or defect), with repercussions on size, metabolic and cardiovascular alterations, DM, etc. The Project has developed a prospective cohort of SGA and seeks to study phenotypic, BQ and genetic differences that explain their different behavior.Material and methods: We study live births of single pregnancies in our Hospital during 2012–2014, and are classified accordin...

Background: The phenotypic effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may depend on their parental origin. PLAGL1 is an imprinted gene expressed from the paternal allele in placenta that is associated with fetal growth, transient neonatal diabetes mellitus and postnatal growth disorders. The mechanisms whereby PLAG1 regulates fetal growth are, however, unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study if the preferential paternal transm...

Background: The human microbiota has emerged as an unexpected modulator of the immune system. The placenta, long thought to be sterile, harbors a unique microbiome and variations in their composition could be related to prevent pregnancy disorders.Objective and hypotheses: To profile the placental microbiota (microorganisms) and microbiome (collection of microbial genomes in an environment) in women with gestational diabetes (GDM) and study their relatio...

Background: The ECOS observational study in Spain (NCT01376921) aims to evaluate adherence to r-hGH therapy prescribed via the easypod™ electromechanical auto-injector device and to analyse factors that may influence adherence in paediatric patients. Easypod™ administers pre-set doses of Saizen® r-hGH and stores accurate records of each dose and injection taken, which can then be shared with the HCP for evaluation of the patient’s adherence.<...

Up to 50% of children born SGA to 2 years have not made a proper catch up (by excess or defect), with repercussions in size, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, DM, etc. epiPEG-PreMeb project to study during their first two years of life.Goals:: Establish a SGAcohort for monitoring, evaluation catch-up, and analysis of medium-environmental and social factors. To study the influence of these variables on clinical, laboratory and metabolic profiles. So...

Background: CREB-regulated transcription coactivator 3 (CRTC3) is found in adipocytes where it may promote obesity through disruption of catecholamine signaling. CRTC3 knockout mice are resistant to diet-induced obesity.Objective and Hypotheses: The goals of the present study were i) to assess whether CRTC3 is a soluble protein secreted by adipose tissue ii) to explore whether CRTC3 is detectable and quantifiable in the circulation, and iii) to ...

Background: STK11 regulates glucose and lipid metabolism. In adult rats, excessive fat deposition and dysfunctional metabolism are related to low STK11 expression in adipose tissue. It is unknown if low STK11 expression in adipose tissue relates also to catch-up growth and fat deposition after intrauterine growth restriction.Objective and Hypotheses: To assess the expression of STK11 in adipose tissue and its relation ...

Background: The innate immune system is one of the first lines of host defense against invading pathogens. Pro-inflammatory α-defensins (mainly DEFA1–3) and anti-inflammatory bacterial/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) are antimicrobial peptides predominantly produced by neutrophils which have been recently related to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study was to test whether α-d...

Background: Muscle is key to glucose metabolism. Myogenesis is completed in early infancy, partly under the inhibitory control of myostatin, a myokine whose actions can be influenced by follistatin. Early lowering of myostatin actions is thus a potential strategy to reduce the risk for later diabetes.Objective and hypotheses: We performed a first screening of whether such lowering is among the natural mechanisms whereby some human infants augment their l...