ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 22 (PTPN22) is a well-established genetic locus of type 1 diabetes (T1D). The aim of the present study is to compare the methylation level of PTPN22 between children and adolescents of Greek origin with T1D and healthy controls.Patients and Methods: Twenty T1D participants and 20 age-/gender-matched healthy youngsters were enrolled. DNA was extracted from white blood cells, the...

Background: Aberrations in the timing of puberty may result in significant adverse health outcomes, including cancers, cardiovascular and neurological pathologies. Self-limited delayed puberty (DP) (i.e. constitutional delay of puberty) runs in families with either autosomal dominant or complex inheritance patterns in >70% of families, indicating a strong genetic basis of the trait. However, only a few genes have been identified underlying DP so far....

Background: Age at onset of puberty exhibits a remarkable variation mirroring nutritional, environmental, socioeconomic and genetic factors. While large genome-wide association studies identified more than hundred genetic loci associated with age at menarche in girls, knowledge on loci associated with age at pubertal onset in boys is sparse. FSHB/FSHR genetic variants have been shown to affect pubertal timing in girls and reproductive parameters in men.<p class="a...

Background: Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CHI) is the commonest cause of refractory hypoglycaemia in infants.Objective and hypotheses: CHI is a rare disorder with varied clinical manifestations, genotype often with poor outcome. This study describes the clinical profile, molecular characterisation, response to therapy and short term outcome in children with CHI presenting to Paediatric Endocrinology Division, B.J. Wadia Hospital for Children, Mumbai.<p...

Background: Most reports on gonadotoxicity associated with chemotherapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) comes from studies in adults, and they are mainly focused on the sensitivity of testicular germ cells. Little attention has been placed on Sertoli cells in prepubertal patients, even though Sertoli cell function is essential for adult spermatogenesis.Objective: To evaluate Sertoli cell function in prepubertal boys who receive chemotherapy for ALL...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem of our century and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In Greece, more than 35% of children and adolescents are currently overweight or obese.Objective and hypotheses: To develop a National e-Health System for General Pediatricians and General Practitioners for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity. Specific aims i...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem of our century, and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In addition to the increased consumption of calories and lack of exercise, accumulating evidence suggests that childhood obesity is strongly associated with prolonged and excessive activation of the stress system.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study was to assess the ...

Background: Hyperinsulinism/hyperammonaemia (HI/HA) syndrome is associated with postprandial hypoglycaemia and mild hyperammonemia. There is increased insulin release following protein ingestion, which is amenable to diaxozide therapy. While developmental delay and normoglycaemic seizures can also occur, hepatomegaly has not been reported. We report a child with HI/HA and hepatomegaly, mild learning difficulty and obesity, who was initially mistaken to have glycogen storage di...

Background: Juvenile Pagets disease (JPD), an ultra-rare, debilitating bone disease stemming from unopposed RANKL action due to loss of functional osteoprotegerin (OPG) is caused by recessive mutations in TNFRSF11B. A genotype-phenotype correlation spanning from mild to very severe forms is described.Objective and hypotheses: To describe the complexity of the human phenotype of OPG deficiency in more detail and to investigate heterozygous mutation carrie...

Background: In humans, glucocorticoids (GCs) regulate a broad spectrum of physiologic functions, exerting both genomic and nongenomic actions through their ubiquitously expressed glucocorticoid receptor (hGR). The rapid nongenomic actions of GCs are likely to be mediated by membrane hGRs that transduce the glucocorticoid signal via activation of kinases. S-palmitoylation plays an important role in plasma membrane localization and occurs through a highly conserved nine amino ac...