ESPE Abstracts

Background and Aim: Metabolic Bone Disease of Prematurity(MBD) is a condition of reduced bone mineral content(BMC) compared to the expected for gestational age(GA). Preterm birth interrupts the physiological process of calcium(Ca) and phosphorus(P) deposition that occurs mostly in the 3rd-trimester of pregnancy, leading to an inadequate bone mineralization during intrauterine life(IUL). After birth, an insufficient intake of Ca and P carries on this alteration...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is often familial but its genetic cause is largely unknown. Very recently, the makorin RING finger protein 3 (MKRN3) gene has been found mutated for the first time in 5 families with familial precocious puberty. The inheritance pattern is particular being the MKRN3 a maternal imprinted gene. Moreover in a recent genome wide association study common intronic or intragenic variants harbouring this gene and other two imprinted genes, D...

Background: IGF1R mutations are characterized by IGF-1 resistance causing impaired fetal and postnatal growth. Several reports in children with heterozygous defects of IGF1R have demonstrated a variable phenotype, which can be associated to microcephaly, dismorphic features and mild developmental delay.Case presentation: We report of an 8-years-old boy, who came at our observation with short stature (−3.2 SDS) and mild microcephal...

Background: There is an emerging evidence that the ovary may be an important site where genes such as LIN28b, whose polymorphisms has been strongly associated to age at menarche, could modulate the timing of puberty. Recent data suggest that the endocannabinoid system plays a role in folliculogenesis and ovulation, through cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) expressed in the ovary. On the other hand childhood obesity is associated with increased likelihood of early menarche,...

Background: The N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) A803G polymorphism leading to substitution of lysine to arginine at residue 268 and codifying for a cytosolic enzyme catalysing acetyl-CoA-dependent N- and O-acetylation reactions, has been associated with decreased insulin sensitivity in a large adult population with the A allele associated with insulin resistance (IR)-related traits.Objective and hypotheses: We screened for this polymorphism, for th...

Background: The phenotype of SHOX aploinsufficiency is highly variable also in affected members of the same family with broad differences in severity of short stature, disproportion, presence of Madelung deformity.Case presentation: We present a family with a new mutation of SHOX gene. A 2.3 years old girl, born at term from unrelated parents, came to our observation for short stature. Her height was −2.02 SDS, arm span was normal, sitting heigh/he...

Background: Primordial dwarfism (PD) is a phenotype characterized by profound growth retardation and microcephaly that is prenatal in onset. Recently mutations in genes involved in ciliogenesis have been described in patients with primordial dwarfism phenotype. In 2012 mutations in rotatin (RTTN), a protein involved in cilia structure and function, have been described in in individuals with bilateral diffuse polymicrogyria, but not growth failure.Case pr...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is often familial but its genetic cause is largely unknown. Very recently, the makorin RING finger protein 3 (MKRN3) gene, located on chromosome 15 in the Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS)-associated region (15q11-q13), has been found mutated for the first time in five families with familial precocious puberty, with a peculiar kind of transmission. In fact, it is an imprinted gene which is expressed only if transmitted from the father. Th...

Background: Studies examining vitamin D levels in association with childhood obesity usually do not concurrently measure levels of vitamin D-binding protein and do not calculate the unbound, bioavailable vitamin D, that is considered the fraction of 25-hydroxyvitamin D able to exert biological activity.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate in a group of children for the most part obese i) the concentrations of both total 25-hydroxyvitamin D and of the bi...

Background: Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) have an increased risk of developing optic pathway gliomas (OPGs) during childhood. Although these tumors usually have a benign course, some cases result in significant clinical symptoms, including endocrinological disorders.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study is to evaluate the endocrinological complications of OPGs involving the chiasm in children with NF1.Metho...