Environmental factors and puberty timing: expert panel research needs.
Serono Symposia International convened an expert panel to review the impact of environmental influences on the regulation of pubertal onset and progression while identifying critical data gaps and future research priorities. An expert panel reviewed the literature on endocrine-disrupting chemicals, body size, and puberty. The panel concluded that available experimental animal and human data support a possible role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and body size in relation to alterations in pubertal onset and progression in boys and girls. Critical data gaps prioritized for future research initiatives include (1) etiologic research that focus on environmentally relevant levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and body size in relation to normal puberty as well as its variants, (2) exposure assessment of relevant endocrine-disrupting chemicals during critical windows of human development, and (3) basic research to identify the primary signal(s) for the onset of gonadotropin-releasing hormone-dependent/central puberty and gonadotropin-releasing hormone-independent/peripheral puberty. Prospective studies of couples who are planning pregnancies or pregnant women are needed to capture the continuum of exposures at critical windows while assessing a spectrum of pubertal markers as outcomes. Coupled with comparative species studies, such research may provide insight regarding the causal ordering of events that underlie pubertal onset and progression and their role in the pathway of adult-onset disease.
Buck Louis
Germaine M
GM
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 6100 Executive Blvd, Room 7B03, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. louisg@mail.nih.gov
Gray
L Earl
LE
Marcus
Michele
M
Ojeda
Sergio R
SR
Pescovitz
Ora H
OH
Witchel
Selma Feldman
SF
Sippell
Wolfgang
W
Abbott
David H
DH
Soto
Ana
A
Tyl
Rochelle W
RW
Bourguignon
Jean-Pierre
JP
Skakkebaek
Niels E
NE
Swan
Shanna H
SH
Golub
Mari S
MS
Wabitsch
Martin
M
Toppari
Jorma
J
Euling
Susan Y
SY
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000009:adverse effects; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D011629:Puberty, Precocious / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000502:physiology
D052244:Endocrine Disruptors