ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

PrefaceIn analogy to previous years, in this year’s chapter we can present only ~1% of the acquired publications according to our search criteria in Pubmed. The last year has again been extremely exciting for the field of obesity and weight regulation and it was a significant step into the future in terms of scientific output. Of course, one of the well-known phenomena of the past year has been a marked increase in child and adolescent body weights ...

Hosp Pediatr. 2021 Jan;11(1):71–78. 10.1542/hpeds.2020-001917. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33033078/In a cohort of 82 children (0–21 years) who were hospitalised for severe SARS-CoV-2 associated respiratory illness, obesity was the strongest risk factor for the outcome of critical care. Already during the first COVID-19 wave...

Science 2021;372(6544): 808–814 doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf7958Isreali et al. describe the molecular structure of the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) complexed with its effector G protein (Gs alpha) and setmelanotide, a pharmacological agonist of MC4R.MC4R is a known key element in body weight regulation, connecting response to leptin with inhibition o...

J Cell Rep. 2021 Mar 23;34(12):108862. 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108862. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33761344/This study demonstrates that MC4R variants found in humans affect receptor endocytosis, trafficking and dimerization and thus reveal multiple cellular mechanisms involved in weight regulation. The findings contributes to our und...

Nat Med, 2021 Jun;27(6):1088–1096. 10.1038/s41591-021-01349-y. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34045736/This paper reports the high prevalence of MC4R loss-of-function (LoF) variants in a normal population and their large impact on longitudinally assessed anthropometric traits from birth to young adult life.Th...

Int J Obes (Lond). 2021;45(1):66–76. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-00673-6This study investigated the influence of MC4R variants on treatment effectiveness in a large cohort undergoing an outpatient treatment program. Carriers of MC4R loss-of-function (LoF) variants showed a lack of improvement in BMI, in contrast to non LoF carriers.As we learn th...

Int J Obes (Lond). 2020 Oct;44(10):2011–2022. 10.1038/s41366-020-0644-1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32713944/Schur et al. addressed the question, whether responsiveness to visual food cues in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is related to the treatment success of a 6-month Family-based Behavioral Treatment (...

eLife 2020;9:e55851. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32955435/Timshel et al. describe a novel strategy for integrating single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data with GWAS data on BMI associated genetic variants, and thereby identify 26 exclusively neuronal cell types that are significantly enriched for BMI heritability.The authors developed two scRNA-seq computation...

Pediatrics 2021 Mar;147(3):e2020024182. 10.1542/peds.2020-024182 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33526606/This sub-analysis of Teen-LABS study shows very similar improvements over 5 years after bariatric surgery between younger and older adolescents with severe obesity in %BMI change (−22.2% vs. −24.6%, respectively), resolution...

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2020 Jul 1;105(7):dgaa247. 10.1210/clinem/dgaa247. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32407531/Based on a structured summary of a case series of 43 well-defined patients, these authors propose for regular screening and preventive examinations in ROHHAD patients and list the therapeutic options. Although these recommendat...