Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2012 May;54(4):468-73. doi: 10.1002/dev.20605. Epub 2011 Sep 27.
This analysis examined the relative contributions of sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and puberty (Tanner) stage on salivary melatonin amplitude. Sixty-nine children and adolescents (30 females; 9.6-17.8 years) were examined for Tanner stage. Serial salivary melatonin samples were collected in controlled conditions, from which these melatonin amplitude measures were derived: area under the curve (AUC) and maximum value (MAX). AUC declined with advancing Tanner stage. This melatonin decline was similar between boys and girls, but girls secreted more melatonin compared to boys. Tanner stage and sex explained AUC variability, but age and BMI did not; similar results emerged for MAX. These results indicate that puberty stage may either mediate the decline of melatonin, or the decrease in melatonin amplitude may be an indicator of pubertal progression. These findings also indicate that the melatonin decline during puberty is not entirely accounted for by body mass or by age.
本分析研究了性别、年龄、体重指数（BMI）和青春期（Tanner）阶段对唾液褪黑素幅度的相对贡献。对 69 名儿童和青少年（30 名女性；9.6-17.8 岁）进行了 Tanner 阶段检查。在对照条件下收集了连续的唾液褪黑素样本，从中得出了这些褪黑素幅度测量值：曲线下面积（AUC）和最大值（MAX）。AUC 随 Tanner 阶段的进展而下降。这种褪黑素的下降在男孩和女孩之间相似，但女孩分泌的褪黑素比男孩多。Tanner 阶段和性别解释了 AUC 的变异性，但年龄和 BMI 没有；MAX 也出现了类似的结果。这些结果表明，青春期阶段可能介导了褪黑素的下降，或者褪黑素幅度的下降可能是青春期进展的一个指标。这些发现还表明，青春期期间褪黑素的下降不能完全由体重或年龄来解释。
