Articles

Shedding light on pediatric diseases: multispectral optoacoustic tomography at the doorway to clinical applications

Optoacoustic imaging (OAI), or photoacoustic imaging (PAI), has fundamentally influenced basic science by providing high-resolution visualization of biological mechanisms. With the introduction of multispectra...

Authors: Adrian P. Regensburger, Alexandra L. Wagner, Jing Claussen, Maximilian J. Waldner and Ferdinand Knieling

Random X chromosome inactivation in patients with Klinefelter syndrome

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is an indispensable process in the development of human female embryos. Reportedly, XCI occurs when a blastocyst contains 10–12 embryonic progenitor cells. To date, it remains u...

Authors: Kenichi Kinjo, Tomoko Yoshida, Yoshitomo Kobori, Hiroshi Okada, Erina Suzuki, Tsutomu Ogata, Mami Miyado and Maki Fukami

Shaping of the nephron – a complex, vulnerable, and poorly explored backdrop for noxae impairing nephrogenesis in the fetal human kidney

The impairment of nephrogenesis is caused by noxae, all of which are significantly different in molecular composition. These can cause an early termination of nephron development in preterm and low birth weigh...

Authors: Will W. Minuth

Functional analysis of granulocyte and monocyte subpopulations in neonates

Neonate immune cell functions lack full protection against pathogens. This could be either defect or protective mechanism against overshooting proinflammatory immune responses.

Authors: Ines Hegge, Ferry Niepel, Anja Lange, Antje Vogelgesang, Matthias Heckmann and Johanna Ruhnau

Vegetarian diets in childhood and adolescence

In Western countries, vegetarian diets are associated with lower intakes of energy, saturated fatty acids and animal protein and higher intakes of fibre and phytochemicals, compared to omnivorous diets. Whethe...

Authors: Silvia Rudloff, Christoph Bührer, Frank Jochum, Thomas Kauth, Mathilde Kersting, Antje Körner, Berthold Koletzko, Walter Mihatsch, Christine Prell, Thomas Reinehr and Klaus-Peter Zimmer

Vitamin D supplementation after the second year of life: joint position of the Committee on Nutrition, German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ e.V.), and the German Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology (DGKED e.V.)

Low vitamin D serum concentrations have been associated with rickets and other disorders in observational studies. Since vitamin D serum concentrations in children and adolescents are frequently below referenc...

Authors: Thomas Reinehr, Dirk Schnabel, Martin Wabitsch, Susanne Bechtold-Dalla Pozza, Christoph Bührer, Bettina Heidtmann, Frank Jochum, Thomas Kauth, Antje Körner, Walter Mihatsch, Christine Prell, Silvia Rudloff, Bettina Tittel, Joachim Woelfle, Klaus-Peter Zimmer and Berthold Koletzko

Complementary foods in baby food pouches: position statement from the Nutrition Commission of the German Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ, e.V.)

Pureed complementary feeding products packed in squeezable plastic pouches, usually with a spout and a screw cap, have been increasingly marketed. The Committee on Nutrition recommends that infants and young c...

Authors: Berthold Koletzko, Christoph Bührer, Regina Ensenauer, Frank Jochum, Hermann Kalhoff, Burkhard Lawrenz, Antje Körner, Walter Mihatsch, Silvia Rudloff and Klaus-Peter Zimmer

KUNO-Kids birth cohort study: rationale, design, and cohort description

Birth cohort studies can contribute substantially to the understanding of health and disease — in childhood and over the life course. The KUNO-Kids birth cohort study was established to investigate various asp...

Authors: Susanne Brandstetter, Antoaneta A. Toncheva, Jakob Niggel, Christine Wolff, Silvia Gran, Birgit Seelbach-Göbel, Christian Apfelbacher, Michael Melter and Michael Kabesch

Gene correction of HBB mutations in CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem cells using Cas9 mRNA and ssODN donors

β-Thalassemia is an inherited hematological disorder caused by mutations in the human hemoglobin beta (HBB) gene that reduce or abrogate β-globin expression. Although lentiviral-mediated expression of β-globin an...

Authors: Justin S. Antony, Ngadhnjim Latifi, A. K. M. Ashiqul Haque, Andrés Lamsfus-Calle, Alberto Daniel-Moreno, Sebastian Graeter, Praveen Baskaran, Petra Weinmann, Markus Mezger, Rupert Handgretinger and Michael S. D. Kormann

Chemotherapy and the pediatric brain

Survival rates of children with cancer are steadily increasing. This urges our attention to neurocognitive and psychiatric outcomes, as these can markedly influence the quality of life of these children. Neuro...

Authors: Chrysanthy Ikonomidou

The role of S100 proteins in the pathogenesis and monitoring of autoinflammatory diseases

S100A8/A9 and S100A12 are released from activated monocytes and granulocytes and act as proinflammatory endogenous toll-like receptor (TLR)4-ligands. S100 serum concentrations correlate with disease activity, ...

Authors: Dirk Holzinger, Dirk Foell and Christoph Kessel

Precision medicine in pediatric oncology

Outcome in treatment of childhood cancers has improved dramatically since the 1970s. This success was largely achieved by the implementation of cooperative clinical research trial groups that standardized and ...

Authors: Stefan E. G. Burdach, Mike-Andrew Westhoff, Maximilian Felix Steinhauser and Klaus-Michael Debatin

Anti-inflammatory monocytes—interplay of innate and adaptive immunity

Monocytes are central to our health as they contribute to both hemispheres of our immune system, the innate and the adaptive arm. Sensing signals from the outside world, monocytes govern the innate immunity by...

Authors: Georg Varga and Dirk Foell

Intrauterine growth restriction - impact on cardiovascular diseases later in life

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a fetal pathology which leads to increased risk for certain neonatal complications. Furthermore, clinical and experimental studies revealed that IUGR is associated wit...

Authors: Carlos Menendez-Castro, Wolfgang Rascher and Andrea Hartner

The potential of antisense oligonucleotide therapies for inherited childhood lung diseases

Antisense oligonucleotides are an emerging therapeutic option to treat diseases with known genetic origin. In the age of personalised medicines, antisense oligonucleotides can sometimes be designed to target a...

Authors: Kelly M. Martinovich, Nicole C. Shaw, Anthony Kicic, André Schultz, Sue Fletcher, Steve D. Wilton and Stephen M. Stick

CISH promoter polymorphism effects on T cell cytokine receptor signaling and type 1 diabetes susceptibility

Impaired regulatory T cell immunity plays a central role in the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) signaling is essential for regulatory T cells (T_REG), and cytokine-inducible SH...

Authors: Julia Seyfarth, Heinz Ahlert, Joachim Rosenbauer, Christina Baechle, Michael Roden, Reinhard W. Holl, Ertan Mayatepek, Thomas Meissner and Marc Jacobsen

Preserved in vitro immunoreactivity in children receiving long-term immunosuppressive therapy due to inflammatory bowel disease or autoimmune hepatitis

Children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) are at risk for severe infections. This is partially a result of their chronic disease condition but, moreover, a side effect of the...

Authors: Teresa Schleker, Eva-Maria Jacobsen, Benjamin Mayer, Gudrun Strauss, Klaus-Michael Debatin and Carsten Posovszky

Concepts for a therapeutic prolongation of nephrogenesis in preterm and low-birth-weight babies must correspond to structural-functional properties in the nephrogenic zone

Numerous investigations are dealing with anlage of the mammalian kidney and primary development of nephrons. However, only few information is available about the last steps in kidney development leading at bir...

Authors: Will W. Minuth

The BPD trio? Interaction of dysregulated PDGF, VEGF, and TGF signaling in neonatal chronic lung disease

The development of neonatal chronic lung disease (nCLD), i.e., bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants, significantly determines long-term outcome in this patient population. Risk factors include m...

Authors: Prajakta Oak and Anne Hilgendorff

Estimated prevalence of potentially damaging variants in the leptin gene

Mutations in the leptin gene (LEP) can alter the secretion or interaction of leptin with its receptor, leading to extreme early-onset obesity. The purpose of this work was to estimate the prevalence of heteroz...

Authors: Adriana Nunziata, Guntram Borck, Jan-Bernd Funcke, Katja Kohlsdorf, Stephanie Brandt, Anke Hinney, Barbara Moepps, Peter Gierschik, Klaus-Michael Debatin, Pamela Fischer-Posovszky and Martin Wabitsch

Transcatheter atrial septal defect closure in an infant (body weight 6.4 kg) using the GORE CARDIOFORM septal occluder (GCSO)

Transcatheter closure has become the treatment of choice for secundum atrial septal defects (ASD II), but particularly in small children, there is concern regarding procedure-related complications.

Authors: Roman Scheidmann, Thomas Paul and Matthias Sigler

Autism spectrum disorder and Li-Fraumeni syndrome: purely coincidental or mechanistically associated?

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders with impaired social interactions and communication and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities. A recent epid...

Authors: Michaela Kuhlen, Julia Taeubner, Dagmar Wieczorek and Arndt Borkhardt

The molecular pathophysiology of chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO)—a systematic review

Chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) belongs to the growing spectrum of autoinflammatory diseases and primarily affects the skeletal system. Peak onset ranges between 7 and 12 years of age. The clinical s...

Authors: Sigrun Ruth Hofmann, Franz Kapplusch, Katrin Mäbert and Christian Michael Hedrich

Pediatric precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemia: are T helper cells the missing link in the infectious etiology theory?

Precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL), the most common childhood malignancy, arises from an expansion of malignant B cell precursors in the bone marrow. Epidemiological studies suggest that infect...

Authors: Simone Bürgler and David Nadal

Abstracts of the 52nd Workshop for Pediatric Research

Authors: Rhea van den Bruck, Patrick P. Weil, Thomas Ziegenhals, Philipp Schreiner, Stefan Juranek, Daniel Gödde, Silvia Vogel, Frauke Schuster, Valerie Orth, Johannes Dörner, Daniel Pembaur, Meike Röper, Stefan Störkel, Hubert Zirngibl, Stefan Wirth, Andreas C. W. Jenke…

Human perinatal immunity in physiological conditions and during infection

The intrauterine environment was long considered sterile. However, several infectious threats are already present during fetal life. This review focuses on the postnatal immunological consequences of prenatal ...

Authors: Gijs T. J. van Well, Leonie A. Daalderop, Tim Wolfs and Boris W. Kramer

Role of second-hand smoke (SHS)-induced proteostasis/autophagy impairment in pediatric lung diseases

Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) is one of the prime risk factors for chronic lung disease development. Smoking during pregnancy may lead to birth defects in the newborn that include pulmonary dysfu...

Authors: Neel Patel, Christopher D. Trumph, Manish Bodas and Neeraj Vij

Renal consequences of preterm birth

The developmental origin of health and disease concept identifies the brain, cardiovascular, liver, and kidney systems as targets of fetal adverse programming with adult consequences. As the limits of viabilit...

Authors: Amelie Stritzke, Sumesh Thomas, Harish Amin, Christoph Fusch and Abhay Lodha

Acquisition and adaptation of the airway microbiota in the early life of cystic fibrosis patients

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease in which bacterial infections of the airways play a major role in the long-term clinical outcome. In recent years, a number of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based s...

Authors: Sébastien Boutin and Alexander H. Dalpke

Neutrophil plasticity enables the development of pathological microenvironments: implications for cystic fibrosis airway disease

The pathological course of several chronic inflammatory diseases, including cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, features an aberrant innate immune response dominat...

Authors: Camilla Margaroli and Rabindra Tirouvanziam

Severe changes in colon epithelium in the Mecp2-null mouse model of Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome is best known due to its severe and devastating symptoms in the central nervous system. It is produced by mutations affecting the Mecp2 gene that codes for a transcription factor. Nevertheless, evid...

Authors: Pamela Millar-Büchner, Amber R. Philp, Noemí Gutierrez, Sandra Villanueva, Bredford Kerr and Carlos A. Flores

Wilms’ tumor susceptibility: possible involvement of FOXP3 and CXCL12 genes

Wilms’ tumor is an embryonal neoplasm of the kidney that accounts for approximately 6 % of all childhood tumors. The chemokine CXCL12 (C-X-C chemokine ligand 12) and its ligand CXCR4 (C-X-C chemokine receptor ...

Authors: Patricia Midori Murobushi Ozawa, Carolina Batista Ariza, Roberta Losi-Guembarovski, Alda Losi Guembarovski, Carlos Eduardo Coral de Oliveira, Bruna Karina Banin-Hirata, Marina Okuyama Kishima, Diego Lima Petenuci and Maria Angelica Ehara Watanabe

Leukocyte recruitment in preterm and term infants

Impaired cellular innate immune defense accounts for susceptibility to sepsis and its high morbidity and mortality in preterm infants. Leukocyte recruitment is an integral part of the cellular immune response ...

Authors: Katinka Karenberg, Hannes Hudalla and David Frommhold

Linking bronchopulmonary dysplasia to adult chronic lung diseases: role of WNT signaling

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most common chronic lung diseases in infants caused by pre- and/or postnatal lung injury. BPD is characterized by arrested alveolarization and vascularization due...

Authors: Chiharu Ota, Hoeke A. Baarsma, Darcy E. Wagner, Anne Hilgendorff and Melanie Königshoff

Transient spontaneous remission in congenital MLL-AF10 rearranged acute myeloid leukemia presenting with cardiorespiratory failure and meconium ileus

Neonatal leukemia is a rare disease with an estimated prevalence of about one to five in a million neonates. The majority being acute myeloid leukemia (AML), neonatal leukemia can present with a variety of sym...

Authors: Tobias Gyárfás, Juergen Wintgens, Wolfgang Biskup, Ilske Oschlies, Wolfram Klapper, Reiner Siebert, Susanne Bens, Claudia Haferlach, Roland Meisel, Michaela Kuhlen and Arndt Borkhardt

The experience of canakinumab in renal amyloidosis secondary to Familial Mediterranean fever

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by self-limited recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. Patients may develop renal amyloidosis. Colchicine prevents attacks ...

Authors: Betul Sozeri, Nesrin Gulez, Malik Ergin and Erkin Serdaroglu

Molecular biology of the gut

Authors: Hassan Y. Naim, Klaus-Peter Zimmer and Buford Nichols

Early origins of asthma (and allergy)

Asthma is the most common chronic disease starting in childhood and persisting into adulthood in many cases. During childhood, different forms of asthma and wheezing disorders exist that can be discriminated b...

Authors: Michael Kabesch

Lung epithelial GM-CSF improves host defense function and epithelial repair in influenza virus pneumonia—a new therapeutic strategy?

Influenza viruses (IVs) circulate seasonally and are a common cause of respiratory infections in pediatric and adult patients. Additionally, recurrent pandemics cause massive morbidity and mortality worldwide....

Authors: Barbara Rösler and Susanne Herold

Vitamin A-retinoid signaling in pulmonary development and disease

Retinoic acid (RA), the active form of vitamin A, regulates key developmental processes in multiple organs. In the developing lung, RA is crucial for normal growth and differentiation of airways. Disruption in...

Authors: Hector A. Marquez and Wellington V. Cardoso

The puzzle of immune phenotypes of childhood asthma

Asthma represents the most common chronic childhood disease worldwide. Whereas preschool children present with wheezing triggered by different factors (multitrigger and viral wheeze), clinical asthma manifesta...

Authors: Katja Landgraf-Rauf, Bettina Anselm and Bianca Schaub

The need for coordination of research activities in pediatric lung diseases

Authors: Harald Ehrhardt and Klaus-Peter Zimmer

Neutrophil elastase and matrix metalloproteinase 12 in cystic fibrosis lung disease

Chronic lung disease remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Recent studies in young children with CF diagnosed by newborn screening identified neutrophil elas...

Authors: Claudius J. Wagner, Carsten Schultz and Marcus A. Mall

Early injury of the neonatal lung contributes to premature lung aging: a hypothesis

Chronic lung disease of the newborn, also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), is the most common chronic lung disease in early infancy and results in an increased risk for long-lasting pulmonary impairm...

Authors: Silke Meiners and Anne Hilgendorff

Pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: when inflammation meets organ development

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a chronic lung disease of preterm infants. It is caused by the disturbance of physiologic lung development mainly in the saccular stage with lifelong restrictions of pulmonary fun...

Authors: Tayyab Shahzad, Sarah Radajewski, Cho-Ming Chao, Saverio Bellusci and Harald Ehrhardt

Mendeliome sequencing enables differential diagnosis and treatment of neonatal lactic acidosis

Neonatal lactic acidosis can be associated to severe inborn errors of metabolism. Rapid identification of the underlying disorder may improve the clinical management through reliable counseling of the parents ...

Authors: Walid Fazeli, Mert Karakaya, Peter Herkenrath, Anne Vierzig, Jörg Dötsch, Jürgen-Christoph von Kleist-Retzow and Sebahattin Cirak

Mechanism of human rhinovirus infections

About 150 human rhinovirus serotypes are responsible for more than 50 % of recurrent upper respiratory infections. Despite having similar 3D structures, some bind members of the low-density lipoprotein recepto...

Authors: Dieter Blaas and Renate Fuchs

The cross-talk between enterocytes and intraepithelial lymphocytes

The gut mucosa is continuously exposed to food and microbial antigens. Both enterocytes and intraepithelial lymphocytes have a pivotal role in maintaining the integrity of intestinal mucosa, as these cells gua...

Authors: Serena Vitale, Stefania Picascia and Carmen Gianfrani

MicroRNA in late lung development and bronchopulmonary dysplasia: the need to demonstrate causality

MicroRNA are emerging as powerful regulators of cell differentiation and tissue and organ development. Several microRNA have been described to play a role in branching morphogenesis, a key step in early lung d...

Authors: Claudio Nardiello and Rory E. Morty

Mesenchymal stromal cells in the development and therapy of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the chronic lung disease of prematurity, remains a major healthcare burden. Despite great progresses in perinatal medicine over the past decades, no cure for BPD has been foun...

Authors: Marius A. Möbius and Mario Rüdiger