title: Impaired Response of Serum IGF-I Levels to Puberty in Previously Malnourished Adolescents.
abstract: Serum levels of IGF-I were measured in Barbadian children, aged 9-15 years, half of whom had experienced protein-energy malnutrition limited to the first year of life. Despite current nutritional adequacy, menarche was delayed more than one year in the girls with a history of early malnutrition and their IGF-I levels failed to show the 60% postmenarchic increase seen in the controls. In addition, the IGF-I levels of boys and girls with prior malnutrition in infancy were not significantly correlated with current anthropometric measurements, whereas IGF-I values of control boys and girls were significantly correlated for almost every growth parameter. Infantile malnutrition may cause an alteration in hypothalamic function resulting both in delayed onset of hypothalamic pituitary functions needed for puberty, and in an impaired growth hormone-IGF-I response.
authors.affiliation: a Center for Behavioral Development and Department of Medicine , Boston University School of Medicine , M923, 80 East Concord Street, Boston , MA 02118 , USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Galler
authors.affiliation: b Rus-in-Urbe Clinic , Bridgetown , Barbados.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Ramsey
authors.affiliation: c Department of Applied Biology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Pilistine
authors.affiliation: d National Center for Research Resources , National Institute of Health , Bethesda, MD , USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaitukaitis
authors.affiliation: e Charles A. Dana Research Institute, Harvard-Thorndike Laboratory of Beth Israel Hospital , Department of Medicine , Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Moses
keywords: Adolescence; IGF-I; Malnutrition; Puberty