title: Urinary zearalenone levels in girls with premature thelarche and idiopathic central precocious puberty.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recently, it was reported that the development of breast tissue and secondary sex characteristics in girls occurred at much younger age and the incidences of premature thelarce (PT) and central idiopathic precocious puberty (ICPP) are increasing. In this context, we wanted to evaluate the mycoestrogen exposure as triggering factor for premature sexual development.
  
  
  METHODS
  The girls living in Mediterranean region of Turkey were divided in to three groups: control (N.=25; mean age: 6.45 ± 1), PT (N.=28; mean age: 6.86 ± 0.95) and ICPP (N.=25; mean age: 6.97 ± 0.87). Urinary ZEN levels were measured by using ELISA technique and were normalized by urinary creatinine levels. Body Mass Index (BMI) was evaluated and sex hormone levels were also measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that urinary ZEN was detectable in ~81% of all samples and observed an increase of ~2-fold in PT and a significant increase ~2.8-fold in ICPP group vs. control. We did not find any significant correlations between urinary ZEN levels and BMI and sex hormones in any of the groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating urinary ZEN levels in PT and ICPP Turkish patients. We can postulate that ZEN exposure can contribute to the etiology of PT and PP; however further studies on large number of subjects are needed to confirm the present data.
authors.affiliation: Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy Department of Toxicology, Ankara, Turkey - bgiray@hacettepe.edu.tr.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Asci
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Durmaz
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Erkekoglu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pasli
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bircan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kocer-Gumusel
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D001940:Breast / Q000254:growth & development*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011629:Puberty, Precocious / Q000209:etiology / Q000652:urine*; D014421:Turkey; D015025:Zearalenone / Q000652:urine*
chemical_list: D015025:Zearalenone