Puberty and its disorders Flashcards
What are the main events of puberty?
- transition from non-reproductive state to reproductive state
- Secondary characteristics develop
- Adolescent growth spurt
- Profound physiological and psychological changes
- Gonads produce mature gametes
What are the two main endocrine process in puberty?
- Adrenarche (pubarche) - maturation of cells in adrenal cortex results in the release of androgens from adrenals
- Gonadarche - follows adrenarche. Driven by HPG axis, LH and FSH activate gonadal function.
What are the phenotypic changes due to LH/FSH?
- LH causes steroid synthesis, which causes secondary sex characteristics (growth in height, pubic hair and axillary hair
- FSH causes growth of testes, steroid synthesis and folliculogenesis
What happens in adrenarche?
- Gradual increase in Dehydro-epiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA- sulfate (DHEAS) from 6>15 years
- 20 fold increase peaking at 20-25 years
- Decline in DHEA/DHEAS afterwards (adrenopause)
- No change in other adrenal androgens
- no known trigger for adrenarche
What is pubarche?
- The result of adrenarche
- Appearance of pubic/axillary hair
- Induced by adrenal androgen secretion
- Associated with increased sebum production = acne
- Infection and abnormal keratinisation = acne
- If it is before 8 years (girls) and 9 years (boys) = precocious
What is gonadarche?
- Several years after adrenarche (~11yrs)
- Reactivation of hypothalamic GnRH
- Activation of gonadal steroid production allowing production of viable gametes and ability to reproduce
GnRH
- Synthesised and secreted by specialist GnRH neurones in the hypothalamus
- Pulsatile secretion is essential for GnRH function
HPG axis is first activated at 26th week, however is restrained postnatally until ~11yrs, when there is a gradual rise - Changes in the pattern of LH secretion occur during postnatal development
How do we measure GnRH secretion?
- Cannot measure it directly
- Measure LH as a surrogate as they go hand-in-hand
What stimulates the onset of puberty?
- Maturational event within the CNS
- Inherent (genetic) maturation of 1-3000 GnRH synthesising hormones?
- Environmental/gentic factors?
- Body fat/nutrition?
- Leptin?
- Other gut hormones
- KISSPEPTIN?
How does nutrition and body fat affect GnRH?
- link between fat metabolism and reproduction
- Anorexia/ intensive physical training
- reduced response to GnRH
- Decreased gonadotrophin levels
- Amenorrhoea
- Restored when nourished/exercise stopped
- Frisch et al - body fat hypothesis. 17% fat:body weight is necessary for menarche, and 22% to maintain female reproductive ability.
How does Kisspeptin affect puberty?
- Mutations of GPR54 or the gene coding for kisspeptin–>
- Abnormal development of GnRH neurones. Causes hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism
- Failure to enter puberty
- Hypothalamic hypogonadism
- Activating mutations of kisspeptin receptor. Leads to precocious puberty
What is consonance?
- The smooth ordered progression of changes
- The order of pubertal changes is uniform
- However the age of onset, pace and duration of changes has wide individual differences
What are the Tanner stage of puberty?
- A scale of physical measurement of development
- 5 stages
5 stages of breast development?
1) No breast tissue
2) areolar enlargement, breast bed
3) enlargement of breast and areola as single mound
4) Projection of areola above breast
5) Papilla projections out of areola, forming part of breast contour
5 stages of pubic hair development
1) none
2) few dark hairs along labia or base of penis
3) curly pigmented hairs across pubes
4) small adult configuration
5) adult configuration with spread onto inner thighs