Disease relevance of Sexual Maturation

• METHODS: We studied 10 men (age, 27 to 57 years) with normal sexual maturation, idiopathic infertility, sexual dysfunction, low serum testosterone concentrations, and apulsatile secretion of luteinizing hormone on frequent blood sampling [1].
• Mean baseline prolactin concentrations were significantly higher in untreated girls with precocious puberty as compared to that of normal controls of the same chronological age and of a comparable degree of sexual maturation (14.5 +/- 1.9 SE vs. 7.4 +/- 1.8 SE ng/ml and vs. 9.5 +/- 1.8 ng/ml, respectively; P less than .02) [2].
• Three children with hypopituitarism had elevated LH levels measured by RIA which were incompatible with their stage of sexual maturation [3].
• To assess sexual maturation of female offspring from alcoholic rats, vaginal opening, body weight, prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone (LH) and growth hormone (GH) were followed during development [4].
• Plasma testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in male rats during sexual maturation and following orchidectomy and experimental bilateral cryptorchidism [5].

Psychiatry related information on Sexual Maturation

• We hypothesized that self-assessment of sexual maturation by adolescents with CF would agree with physician ratings [6].
• Therefore, the present investigation is aimed to understand the effects of STZ diabetes on the structure and development of ventral prostate during the critical period of sexual maturation in rats [7].

High impact information on Sexual Maturation

• In addition, GnRHa therapy of CPP provides a unique opportunity to study the effects of gonadal sex steroids on GH secretion and somatomedin-C (Sm-C) generation during sexual maturation [8].
• These findings suggest that phenobarbital treatment during prenatal development can produce permanent alterations in sexual maturation [9].
• Opioid peptides modulate luteinizing hormone secretion during sexual maturation [10].
• In addition, estradiol benzoate specifically blocks the luteinizing hormone response to naloxone in prepubertal female rats, suggesting that the opioid peptides have a physiological role in the endocrine events leading to sexual maturation [10].
• Growth and sexual maturation assessed by Tanner staging and testicular volume were not significantly different between the lovastatin and placebo groups at 24 weeks (P = .85) and 48 weeks (P = .33); neither were serum hormone levels or biochemical parameters of nutrition [11].

Chemical compound and disease context of Sexual Maturation

• In children with central precocious puberty, leuprorelin (usually monthly intramuscular or subcutaneous injections of depot leuprorelin 3.75 to 15mg) decreases mean growth velocity and signs of sexual maturation and increases predicted adult height compared with baseline measurements [12].
• In a parallel experiment, chronic treatment with d, 1-parachlorophenylalanine, an inhibitor of brain serotonin synthesis, from weaning until adulthood, also inhibited growth (body weight) and delayed sexual maturation (age of vaginal opening) [13].
• The present results suggest that dietary atrazine exhibits limited reproductive toxicity in female quail during sexual maturation and only at concentrations above ecological relevance [14].
• The effects of these procedures on physical development (body weight and eye opening), sexual maturation [anogenital distance, testis weight, 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/(Delta5-4) (3betaHSD) isomerase activity and time to testis descent] and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) immunoreactivity in the testis were examined [15].
• Whether the appearance of edema is indicative of an excitotoxic action of MSG, resulting in the removal of neurons inhibitory to sexual maturation, remains to be established [16].

Biological context of Sexual Maturation

• Changes in gonadotropins and gonadal steroids during sexual maturation in rats and humans are well documented but little is known about hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) gene expression in relation to these events [17].
• We created mice deficient in Inpp5b; the mice were viable and fertile without phenotype except for testicular degeneration in males beginning after sexual maturation [18].
• Pharmacokinetics of melatonin in human sexual maturation [19].
• In 2 patients in whom LHRH-A therapy was discontinued because of skin reactions, precocious sexual maturation resumed at the previous rate for the ensuing 6-12 months; subsequently, they were desensitized to LHRH-A, and during a second course of therapy, their secondary sexual development and sex steroid levels again quickly decreased [20].
• Postnatal expression of the TTF-1 gene was limited to subsets of hypothalamic neurons, including LHRH neurons, which control sexual maturation, and preproenkephalinergic neurons of the lateroventromedial nucleus of the basal hypothalamus, which restrain sexual maturation and facilitate reproductive behavior [21].

Anatomical context of Sexual Maturation

• Studies on the ontogeny of GAD mRNA expression showed low levels of GAD mRNA in testes of prepubertal rats, with increasing levels as sexual maturation is reached, compatible with GAD mRNA expression in germ cells [22].
• Nevertheless, it was verified that the specific activity of PHGPx in testis, but not of cGPx, correlated with sexual maturation [23].
• The PR expression in the BF was preceded by the expression of PR in the oviduct stromal cells and by an increase in oviduct epithelial proliferation, indicating the BF is affected by factors associated with sexual maturation [24].
• By use of multiple-regression analysis, plasma retinol concentration was positively related to plasma cholesterol and triglyceride, sexual-maturation index, body fat, and being male [25].
• Changes in distribution and androgen production of Leydig cells of two populations during sexual maturation in the rat [26].

Associations of Sexual Maturation with chemical compounds

• CONCLUSIONS: In pubertal children, sexual maturation, BMI, dietary intervention (in girls), and dietary cholesterol (in boys) were significant in determining LDL-C [27].
• The effect of ethinyl estradiol (EE2) and dexamethasone (Dex) upon plasma renin substrate (PRS) was studied in rats in relation to sexual maturation and pituitary function [28].
• The presence of PS mRNA levels in the SMG and kidney prior to sexual maturation reflects the androgen independence of PS gene expression and suggests that PS (true kallikrein) may play a constitutive and/or developmental role in SMG or renal physiology [29].
• OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the impact of risperidone on growth and sexual maturation [30].
• The stimulated D4-A to 17-OHP ratio increased with sexual maturation, whereas ratios of cortisol to 17-OHP and D4-A to DHEA remained constant [31].

Gene context of Sexual Maturation

• Our current findings demonstrated that physiological activation of PKR2 is essential for normal development of the OB and sexual maturation [32].
• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is the central regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, controlling sexual maturation and fertility in diverse species from fish to humans [33].
• These results demonstrated a regulatory mechanism operating, during sexual maturation, on the SgII gene and not on the protein processing or on storage/release steps [34].
• These findings suggest that neonatal melatonin administration induces an earlier sexual maturation in male rats, possibly related to PRL, LH, MAO, and PNMT increases [35].
• Serum prolactin and luteinizing hormone levels and the activities of hypothalamic monoamine oxidase A and B and phenylethanolamine-N-methyl transferase are changed during sexual maturation in male rats treated neonatally with melatonin [35].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Sexual Maturation

• In the first experiment, we administered leptin (6.3 micrograms/g twice daily) to a group of normal prepubertal female rats and compared their rate of sexual maturation to that of two control groups [36].
• Passive immunization against GRF during this recovery phase did reduce the growth rate, but did not delay sexual maturation [37].
• The aim of this study was to examine the expression and regulation of microsomal (m) PGE synthase (PGES)-1 and cytosolic (c) PGES in the mouse ovary during sexual maturation, gonadotropin treatment and luteal development by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry [38].
• Expression of the EGF gene was assessed in mouse testis during the course of sexual maturation by the application of the RT-PCR method and the use of specific oligonucleotide primers [39].
• In addition, preputial separation and vaginal opening as endpoints of sexual maturation, estrous cycling, sperm count, serum testosterone concentration, and histopathologic changes of reproductive organs of male and female rats were examined [40].

References