Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The return to active long bone growth in puberty is a distinctly human event1 and occurs ~2 years earlier in girls compared to boys. Evolutionarily conserved networks of genes are associated with the developmental phases of childhood in multiple tissues2, implying the existence of a genetic program that controls the pubertal return to growth.Objectives: To identify biological functions associated with gender and age-rela...

Introduction: Growth rate tends to be greater in children living at higher latitudes although the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The aim of this study was to compare height velocity (HV) in response to recombinant human GH (r-hGH) therapy in children with GH deficiency (GHD) living at different latitudes.Design: Pre-pubertal children with GHD (n=118) were enrolled from the PREDICT long-term follow-up prospective study (NCT00699855). Data wer...

Girls with Turner syndrome (TS) are treated with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) to improve their adult height but the gain is variable (0–20 cm). Current prediction models can account for only ~46% of the variability in the first year response to rhGH, thus genetic profiling has been suggested as a possible means of improving this prediction. The aim of this study was to explore mRNA expression profiles in an ex-vivo fibroblast model to characterise response to r...

Background: Previous studies use small for gestational age (SGA) as a surrogate marker for fetal growth restriction (FGR). SGA individuals, particularly those who show catch-up growth have greater cardiometabolic (CM) risk than those born appropriate for gestational age. However, not all FGR fetuses are born SGA. Therefore, we studied neonates born following pregnancies at increased risk of FGR, irrespective of birthweight.Aim: To define associations bet...

Background: Cardiometabolic (CM) risk is linked to being small for gestational age (SGA, birthweight <-2SDS). Suboptimal fetal growth alone may be linked with greater CM risk without resulting in SGA. Therefore, we focused on CM risk in children born following pregnancies at higher risk for growth restriction, irrespective of birthweight.Aims: 1. To identify associations between fetal and childhood weight trajectories and CM risk markers. 2. To defin...

Objectives: Kids in control of food (KICK-OFF) is a 5-day structured education programme for 11–16 year olds with type 1 diabetes who use multiple daily insulin injections. This study evaluates whether KICk-OFF would be considered a cost effective use of NHS resources by decision makers in the UK.Methods: A cost effectiveness analysis comparing KICk-OFF to usual care was conducted. Data from the KICk-OFF trial were extrapolated to simulate lifetime ...

Background: Reduced bone mineral density (BMD) z-scores from Dual energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DEXA) have been reported in childhood HSCT survivors. However, BMD z-scores are unreliable in patients with short stature.Objective: To investigate the influence of HSCT/TBI on size-corrected BMD in childhood leukaemia survivors.Method: Post-pubertal leukaemia survivors (16–26 years) treated with HSCT/TBI (10–1...

Background: Adult survivors of childhood leukaemia treated with bone marrow transplantation and total body irradiation (BMT/TBI) have an increased risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) disproportionate to their level of adiposity or other recognised risk factors. Post prandial hyperglycaemia due to reduced β-cell reserve after irradiation will be missed by fasting glucose (FG) levels. However, the UK National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) screening guidelines recommend...

Background: GH deficiency (GHD) has a spectrum of severity as characterised by GH stimulation tests; the cut-off level for GHD has been a long standing contentious issue. An independent biological correlate of severity would be valuable.Objectives: To identify patterns of gene expression (GE) that correlate with severity in GHD.Methods: Pre-pubertal children with GHD (n=72) were enrolled from the PREDICT study (NCT00256126...

Background: Adult survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treated with bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and total body irradiation (TBI) have increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and diabetes mellitus (DM). Insulin resistance (IR) has been described, but effects of TBI on pancreatic growth and β-cell function have not been previously reported.Method: Two groups of childhood ALL survivors were studied: Group 1, treat...