ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

Eur J Endocrinol. 2021 May 24;185(1):77-85. doi: 10.1530/EJE-20-1332. PMID: 33914700.Brief Summary: This case control study assessed beta-cell function and glucose metabolism in large for gestational age (LGA) infants in relation to their weight and growth parameters at 2 years of age. In LGA infants, changes in growth parameters were associated with changes in insulin resistance and beta-cell dy...

Brief summary: This paper reviews the associations between cellular iron, ferroptosis and diabetes. It also explores the therapeutic potential of ferroptosis inhibitors in the treatment of diabetic complications.Comment: Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is characterized by the decreased capacity of antioxidants and the accumulation of lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS).1 This, in turn, causes oxidative damage to cell membran...

Brief summary: Genome-wide small hairpin RNA screening revealed a specialized role for the protein phospholipase D6 (PLD6) located at and highly expressed in the outer mitochondrial membrane of cells in steroidogenic organs. Here PLD6 promotes the entrance of LDL/LDLR complex into the mitochondria where LDL-carried cholesterol is released for steroid hormone biosynthesis.Thereby the mitochondrial redox-sensitive CISD2 protein was found to support the trafficking of the LDL/LDL...

To read the full abstract: PLoS Med. 2019 Oct 1;16(10):e1002926. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002926.The authors analysed a huge dataset from the Chinese national programme of preconception health checks, which include measurements of fasting plasma glucose. Overall, 13.15% (n =847,737) had impaired fasting glucose and 1.18% (n =76,297 women) had diabetes, of whom only...

In Brief: These authors studied liver-specific SIRT2 knockout mice to examine how loss of hepatocyte SIRT2 (Sirtuin 2) prevents bone loss in aged mice. Hepatocyte SIRT2 deficiency led to upregulation of Leucine rich α2 glycoprotein (LRG1) in hepatocyte-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) which inhibited osteoclastogenesis in bone marrow.Commentary: Liver-bone communication has been implicated in bone homeostasis. P...

Brief summary: The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium reports a first draft of the human pangenome reference due to replace the existing reference GRCh38 (1, 2). It is an updated, high-quality, graph-based, telomere-to-telomere representation of global genomic diversity including common variants (single-nucleotide variants, structural variants and functional elements).The human reference genome is the fundamental, open-access resource of modern human g...

To read the full abstract: Nat Med 2018, May;24(5):551-555[Comments on 1.1, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7] All four here presented articles have monogenic obesity as their theme. While patients with monogenic obesity are rare, these individuals bear a heavy disease burden. Furthermore, these...

To read the full abstract: Science 2018;360:1087-1092During the Cardiovascular Risk Survey in western China, a Kazakh family with inherited low levels of LDL-C was identified. The Kazakhs are mainly descendent from the Turkic and medieval Mongol peoples, they live in isolated regions and usually marry within their own ethnic group. They exhibit often unique differences in single nucleotide vari...

Brief summary: Using in-depth multi-omics analyses of human type 1 diabetes (T1D) samples, the authors profiled gut microbial functional and metabolic alterations. The T1D microbiota showed decreased butyrate production and bile acid metabolism and increased lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis. Fecal microbiota transplantation in animal models proved that T1D gut microflora is a causative factor in the regulation of glucose metabolism.The etiology of T...