TY - JOUR
T1 - Initiation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in young girls undergoing central precocious puberty exerts remodeling effects on the prefrontal cortex
AU - Yang, Di
AU - Zhang, Wenjing
AU - Zhu, Yaxin
AU - Liu, Peining
AU - Tao, Bo
AU - Fu, Yuchuan
AU - Chen, Yu
AU - Zhou, Lu
AU - Liu, Lu
AU - Gao, Xin
AU - Liu, Xiaozheng
AU - Rubin, Leah H.
AU - Sweeney, John A.
AU - Yan, Zhihan
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 81371527, 81671664, and 81621003), the National Program for Special Support of Eminent Professionals, the National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Investigators, the Zhejiang Medical Health Science and Technology Program (grant number 2017KY108), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (grant number LY19H180003), and the Medical Health Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (grant number 2017ZD024).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 Yang, Zhang, Zhu, Liu, Tao, Fu, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Gao, Liu, Rubin, Sweeney and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Central precocious puberty (CPP) has been shown to exert significant effects on psychosocial development. These early puberty-related hormones and psychosocial functional changes are considered to be associated with specific brain development. However, the biological mechanisms underlying the sculpting of human brain architecture and modulation of psychosocial transformation by puberty-related hormonal maturation remain elusive, especially during the early phase of CPP. The current investigation aims to specify the brain regions in which early hormone-related maturation effects occur during CPP and their relationships with psychological functions. 65 young girls (aged 4.3-8.0 years) underwent structural imaging on a 3T MR system, completed psychological tests and performed the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation test to identify hormonal manifestations of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG axis) activation. Based on the GnRH test, 28 young girls were identified with CPP, whereas the other 37 girls were identified with non-central precocious puberty (NCPP). Cortical parameters were calculated and compared between the two groups after adjusting for age, weight, and height. Brain regions showing group differences were extracted and correlated with serum hormone levels and psychological parameters. The CPP girls showed thinner cortices primarily in the right rostral middle frontal cortex. This morphological difference was positively correlated with stimulated estradiol (E2) levels. Further, higher E2 levels were significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores. Premature HPG axis activation in CPP girls at an early stage appears to exert remodeling effects on brain anatomy, primarily in the prefrontal cortex, which may affect psychological development following the emergence of robust changes in sex hormones.
AB - Central precocious puberty (CPP) has been shown to exert significant effects on psychosocial development. These early puberty-related hormones and psychosocial functional changes are considered to be associated with specific brain development. However, the biological mechanisms underlying the sculpting of human brain architecture and modulation of psychosocial transformation by puberty-related hormonal maturation remain elusive, especially during the early phase of CPP. The current investigation aims to specify the brain regions in which early hormone-related maturation effects occur during CPP and their relationships with psychological functions. 65 young girls (aged 4.3-8.0 years) underwent structural imaging on a 3T MR system, completed psychological tests and performed the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation test to identify hormonal manifestations of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG axis) activation. Based on the GnRH test, 28 young girls were identified with CPP, whereas the other 37 girls were identified with non-central precocious puberty (NCPP). Cortical parameters were calculated and compared between the two groups after adjusting for age, weight, and height. Brain regions showing group differences were extracted and correlated with serum hormone levels and psychological parameters. The CPP girls showed thinner cortices primarily in the right rostral middle frontal cortex. This morphological difference was positively correlated with stimulated estradiol (E2) levels. Further, higher E2 levels were significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores. Premature HPG axis activation in CPP girls at an early stage appears to exert remodeling effects on brain anatomy, primarily in the prefrontal cortex, which may affect psychological development following the emergence of robust changes in sex hormones.
KW - Central precocious puberty
KW - Cortical thickness
KW - Estradiol
KW - Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis
KW - Psychological development
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U2 - 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00332
DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00332
M3 - Article
C2 - 31133903
AN - SCOPUS:85068222440
SN - 1664-0640
VL - 10
JO - Frontiers in Psychiatry
JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry
IS - MAY
M1 - 332
ER -