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Journal of Research on Adolescence :... Mar 2019We promote the perspective that puberty, a separate biological process embedded in adolescence, is a "window of opportunity" for understanding and impacting health and... (Review)
Review
We promote the perspective that puberty, a separate biological process embedded in adolescence, is a "window of opportunity" for understanding and impacting health and development. First, we include a brief overview of pubertal change. Second, we propose a critical role for puberty in shaping life span health due to its connections with early life precursors, health issues and risks emerging during puberty, and health in young adulthood and beyond. Next, we discuss the importance of puberty measures in developmental research and suggest ways to make the science of puberty an important standalone research entity, as well as an essential component of studies conducted during adolescence. Finally, we discuss measurement issues, novel theoretical models of puberty, and the necessity of adopting an interdisciplinary perspective in research on puberty and in adolescence more broadly.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Adolescent Health; Concept Formation; Health Promotion; Humans; Longevity; Puberty; Research; Sexual Maturation
PubMed: 30869846
DOI: 10.1111/jora.12431 -
The Journal of Pediatrics Jul 2020To test the association between early puberty and telomere length in preadolescent girls and mothers from a large representative sample of US females.
OBJECTIVE
To test the association between early puberty and telomere length in preadolescent girls and mothers from a large representative sample of US females.
STUDY DESIGN
We analyzed data from 1194 preadolescent girls and 2421 mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Participants were from a population-based birth cohort (1998-2000) born in large US cities. Telomere length was assessed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction from saliva samples provided by preadolescent girls and mothers of preadolescent youth. Mothers completed a questionnaire about their child's pubertal development to determine concurrent Tanner stages and provided self-reports of her own age at menarche. Linear regression models were used to estimate the association between pubertal development (status and timing) and telomere length.
RESULTS
Early pubertal timing but not pubertal status was associated with shorter telomere length in preadolescent girls (P < .01). Early age at menarche was associated with shorter telomere length in a sample of mothers of preadolescent youth (P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS
Results provide evidence for the association between early puberty and shorter telomeres evidenced by associations in both preadolescent girls and mothers. Future research should address the limitations of this study by using longitudinal measurements of pubertal development assessed through medical examinations and repeated assessments of telomere length to capture telomere attrition.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Child Development; Female; Humans; Menarche; Mothers; Puberty; Retrospective Studies; Telomere; Telomere Homeostasis; Young Adult
PubMed: 32586523
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.02.075 -
Current Hypertension Reports Jul 2023Puberty is a complex process leading to physical, sexual, and psychosocial maturation. The changes in morphology and organ function during puberty also affect blood... (Review)
Review
Puberty is a complex process leading to physical, sexual, and psychosocial maturation. The changes in morphology and organ function during puberty also affect blood pressure (BP) regulation, and as a consequence (BP) values change noticeably, reaching values often higher than after reaching full maturity. In children entering puberty, BP, especially systolic, increases and then reaches adult values by the end of puberty. The mechanisms responsible for this process are complex and not fully understood. Sex hormones, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1, and insulin, whose production increases during puberty, significantly regulate BP through complex and overlapping mechanisms. During puberty, the incidence of arterial hypertension also increases, especially in children with excess body weight. The present paper presents the current state of knowledge regarding the influence of processes occurring during puberty on blood pressure.
Topics: Child; Adult; Humans; Blood Pressure; Hypertension; Body Mass Index; Puberty; Gonadal Steroid Hormones
PubMed: 37071287
DOI: 10.1007/s11906-023-01241-9 -
Current Opinion in Endocrinology,... Jun 2015Data on sex steroid levels and pubertal development in obese adolescent boys are scarce and contrasting. The present review summarizes the most recent results obtained... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Data on sex steroid levels and pubertal development in obese adolescent boys are scarce and contrasting. The present review summarizes the most recent results obtained with improved methodology to measure low sex steroid levels in children.
RECENT FINDINGS
Obese pubertal boys have lower serum sex hormone-binding globulin and consequently lower total testosterone levels compared to normal-weight peers. However, during pubertal development, free testosterone levels in obese adolescents are not different from controls, indicating preserved androgen exposure as is additionally suggested by similar clinical genital staging (Tanner), serum gonadotropins levels, and serum prostate-specific antigen concentrations compared to nonobese adolescents. In pre and early puberty, total testosterone levels is not decreased, notwithstanding low sex hormone-binding globulin, and free testosterone is slightly increased in obese boys. This may result from increased adrenal activity as revealed by elevated serum androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. In obese adolescent boys, increased aromatization of testosterone to estradiol tends to accelerate skeletal maturation.
SUMMARY
In obese adolescent boys, free testosterone is a better index than total testosterone levels of androgen status, which is not different from nonobese controls. Increased aromatization of testosterone to estradiol underlies the dissociation between normal clinical sexual maturation and advanced skeletal maturation in the obese adolescent.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Androgens; Humans; Male; Obesity; Puberty
PubMed: 25871956
DOI: 10.1097/MED.0000000000000160 -
International Journal of Molecular... Mar 2021Chronic stress is encountered in our everyday life and is thought to contribute to a number of diseases. Many of these stress-related disorders display a sex bias.... (Review)
Review
Chronic stress is encountered in our everyday life and is thought to contribute to a number of diseases. Many of these stress-related disorders display a sex bias. Because glucocorticoid hormones are the main biological mediator of chronic stress, researchers have been interested in understanding the sexual dimorphism in glucocorticoid stress response to better explain the sex bias in stress-related diseases. Although not yet demonstrated for glucocorticoid regulation, sex chromosomes do influence sex-specific biology as soon as conception. Then a transient rise in testosterone start to shape the male brain during the prenatal period differently to the female brain. These organizational effects are completed just before puberty. The cerebral regions implicated in glucocorticoid regulation at rest and after stress are thereby impacted in a sex-specific manner. After puberty, the high levels of all gonadal hormones will interact with glucocorticoid hormones in specific crosstalk through their respective nuclear receptors. In addition, stress occurring early in life, in particular during the prenatal period and in adolescence will prime in the long-term glucocorticoid stress response through epigenetic mechanisms, again in a sex-specific manner. Altogether, various molecular mechanisms explain sex-specific glucocorticoid stress responses that do not exclude important gender effects in humans.
Topics: Adolescent; Animals; Child; Child Development; Embryonic Development; Genetic Association Studies; Glucocorticoids; Gonadal Hormones; Humans; Hydrocortisone; Puberty; Sex Characteristics; Sex Factors; Steroids; Stress, Physiological; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 33808655
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22063139 -
Seminars in Reproductive Medicine Jul 2019The factors that trigger human puberty are among the central mysteries of reproductive biology. Several approaches, including mutational analysis of candidate genes,... (Review)
Review
The factors that trigger human puberty are among the central mysteries of reproductive biology. Several approaches, including mutational analysis of candidate genes, large-scale genome-wide association studies, whole exome sequencing, and whole genome sequencing have been performed in attempts to identify novel genetic factors that modulate the human hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis to result in premature sexual development. Genetic abnormalities involving excitatory and inhibitory pathways regulating gonadotropin-releasing hormone secretion, represented by the kisspeptin ( and ) and makorin ring finger 3 () systems, respectively, have been associated with sporadic and familial cases of central precocious puberty (CPP). More recently, paternally inherited genetic defects of were identified in four families with nonsyndromic CPP and a metabolic phenotype. encodes a transmembrane protein that is important for adipose tissue homeostasis and neurogenesis and is located in the imprinted chromosome 14q32 region associated with Temple syndrome. In this review, we highlight the clinical and genetic features of patients with CPP caused by mutations and explore the involvement of Notch signaling and DLK1 in the control of pubertal onset.
Topics: Age Factors; Calcium-Binding Proteins; Genome-Wide Association Study; Humans; Membrane Proteins; Puberty; Receptors, Notch; Sexual Maturation; Signal Transduction; Time Factors
PubMed: 31972862
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-3400963 -
Endocrine Development 2016Recent studies have documented earlier pubertal maturation in both girls and boys. Several factors have been proposed to account for earlier maturation. Epidemiologic... (Review)
Review
Recent studies have documented earlier pubertal maturation in both girls and boys. Several factors have been proposed to account for earlier maturation. Epidemiologic studies have indicated that genetic factors are the most important influence contributing to the variability in the onset of puberty. Studies have also noted the association of elevated BMI with earlier puberty in girls, although the relationship between BMI and onset of puberty in boys is less consistent. The relationship of BMI and onset of puberty may be mediated by several factors, including leptin and kisspeptin, changes in bioavailable sex hormones, and environmental exposures. Recently, there have been genome-wide meta-analyses examining onset of puberty and anthropometric traits that may provide insight into the relationships of BMI, height velocity, and pubertal timing. Newer fields of investigation include examination of epigenetic modification.
Topics: Adiposity; Body Height; Body Mass Index; Female; Humans; Male; Puberty; Sex Characteristics
PubMed: 26680575
DOI: 10.1159/000438881 -
Endocrinologia, Diabetes Y Nutricion 2018
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Body Mass Index; Child; Child Development; Female; Growth; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Puberty; Spain; Time Factors
PubMed: 29885743
DOI: 10.1016/j.endinu.2018.05.002 -
Annual Review of Psychology Jan 2019The assumption that early stress leads to dysregulation and impairment is widespread in developmental science and informs prevailing models (e.g., toxic stress). An... (Review)
Review
The assumption that early stress leads to dysregulation and impairment is widespread in developmental science and informs prevailing models (e.g., toxic stress). An alternative evolutionary-developmental approach, which complements the standard emphasis on dysregulation, proposes that early stress may prompt the development of costly but adaptive strategies that promote survival and reproduction under adverse conditions. In this review, we survey this growing theoretical and empirical literature, highlighting recent developments and outstanding questions. We review concepts of adaptive plasticity and conditional adaptation, introduce the life history framework and the adaptive calibration model, and consider how physiological stress response systems and related neuroendocrine processes may function as plasticity mechanisms. We then address the evolution of individual differences in susceptibility to the environment, which engenders systematic person-environment interactions in the effects of stress on development. Finally, we discuss stress-mediated regulation of pubertal development as a case study of how an evolutionary-developmental approach can foster theoretical integration.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Allostasis; Biological Evolution; Human Development; Humans; Puberty; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 30125133
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011732 -
The Journal of Adolescent Health :... Mar 2021Risk markers for breast cancer include earlier onset of menarche (age at menarche [AAM]) and peak height velocity (PHV). Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is...
PURPOSE
Risk markers for breast cancer include earlier onset of menarche (age at menarche [AAM]) and peak height velocity (PHV). Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is associated with pubertal milestones, as well as cancer risk. This study examined the relationships between pubertal milestones associated with breast cancer risk and hormone changes in puberty.
METHODS
This is a longitudinal study of pubertal maturation in 183 girls, recruited at ages 6-7, followed up between 2004 and 2018. Measures included age at onset of puberty, and adult height attained; PHV; AAM; adult height, and serum IGF-1, and estrone-to-androstenedione (E:A) ratio.
RESULTS
PHV was greatest in early, and least in late maturing girls; length of the pubertal growth spurt was longest in early, and shortest in late maturing girls. Earlier AAM was related to greater PHV. IGF-1 concentrations tracked significantly during puberty; higher IGF-1 was related to earlier age of PHV, earlier AAM, greater PHV, and taller adult height. Greater E:A ratio was associated with earlier AAM.
CONCLUSIONS
Factors driving the association of earlier menarche and pubertal growth with breast cancer risk may be explained through a unifying concept relating higher IGF-1 concentrations, greater lifelong estrogen exposure, and longer pubertal growth period, with an expanded pubertal window of susceptibility.
Topics: Adult; Body Height; Breast Neoplasms; Child; Female; Humans; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; Longitudinal Studies; Menarche; Puberty
PubMed: 32888770
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.07.016