Accelerated Early Childhood Growth Is Associated With the Development of Earlier Adrenarche and Puberty.

Liimatta, Jani; Jääskeläinen, Jarmo; Mäntyselkä, Aino; Häkkinen, Merja R; Auriola, Seppo; Voutilainen, Raimo; Flück Pandey, Christa E; Lakka, Timo A (2024). Accelerated Early Childhood Growth Is Associated With the Development of Earlier Adrenarche and Puberty. Journal of the Endocrine Society, 8(4), bvae026. Oxford University Press 10.1210/jendso/bvae026

Preview

Text bvae026.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (986kB) | Preview

CONTEXT

Small birth size and increased postnatal growth have been associated with earlier timing of adrenarche and puberty, but it is not well known whether these factors alone or together lead to earlier maturation.

OBJECTIVE

This work aimed to search for different growth trajectories using a clustering approach to analyze the effects of birth size and postnatal growth on adrenarchal and pubertal development.

METHODS

Altogether 351 children (48% girls) were examined prospectively at ages 6 to 9 and 9 to 11 years. Birth and early-growth data were collected retrospectively. Main outcome measures included clinical signs of adrenarche and puberty, and serum androgen concentrations (dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, androstenedione, testosterone).

RESULTS

We detected 4 clusters with different birth sizes and postnatal growth trajectories: 1) children with average birth size and increased postnatal growth (AI), 2) children with small birth size and increased postnatal growth (SI), 3) children with average birth size and postnatal growth (AA), and 4) children with small birth size and average postnatal growth (SA). Thelarche at age 9 to 11 was most common and serum androgens at ages 6 to 9 and 9 to 11 years were highest in girls belonging to the AI and SI groups. Similar patterns in the onset of puberty and in androgen levels were not seen in the SA group.

CONCLUSION

Increased early growth and weight gain predict higher serum androgen concentrations and earlier onset of puberty in girls. Adrenarche and puberty do not appear to be shifted earlier in children with small birth size who do not have catch-up growth.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

0 since deposited on 04 Mar 2024
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item