Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
China-USA Neuroimaging Research Institute, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Int J Neurosci. 2021 Oct;131(10):946-952. doi: 10.1080/00207454.2020.1763342. Epub 2020 May 25.
Puberty is a sensitive period of brain development accompany with pubertal hormones fluctuation. However, the underlying mechanisms of the impact of hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis reactivation and associated elevated pubertal hormones on brain structure are still unclear. Here, we investigated the brain structure differences between girls with and without HPG axis reactivation and the influence of pubertal hormones on these brain regions.
126 girls aged 8-9.5 years underwent a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation test to identify the HPG axis status and categorized into HPG+ group ( = 80) and HPG- group ( = 46). T1-weighted gradient echo three dimensional MRI was performed using a 3.0-Tesla scanner to assess the difference in GMV between the two groups. Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relations between the brain regions showing significant GMV differences and serum hormone concentrations.
The HPG+ group showed significantly higher GMV in the bilateral lingual gyrus and lower GMV within the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus compare to the HPG - group. Furthermore, GMV in the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus was positively associated with plasma concentrations of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in HPG+ group.
The present study suggests that the reactivated HPG axis could affects regional structural brain changes in early pubertal girls. FSH production play an important role in bilateral lingual gyrus, which are involved in vision processing, semantic processing and emotional expression.
青春期是大脑发育的敏感时期，伴随着青春期激素的波动。然而，下丘脑-垂体-性腺（HPG）轴重新激活及其相关的青春期激素升高对大脑结构的影响的潜在机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们研究了 HPG 轴重新激活的女孩和没有 HPG 轴重新激活的女孩之间的大脑结构差异，以及青春期激素对这些大脑区域的影响。
126 名 8-9.5 岁的女孩接受了促性腺激素释放激素（GnRH）刺激试验以确定 HPG 轴状态，并分为 HPG+组（n=80）和 HPG-组（n=46）。使用 3.0-Tesla 扫描仪进行 T1 加权梯度回波三维 MRI，以评估两组之间 GMV 的差异。进行相关分析以探索显示 GMV 差异的大脑区域与血清激素浓度之间的关系。
HPG+组的双侧舌回 GMV 明显高于 HPG-组，右侧眶额下回 GMV 明显低于 HPG-组。此外，HPG+组右侧眶额下回的 GMV 与血浆卵泡刺激素（FSH）浓度呈正相关。
本研究表明，重新激活的 HPG 轴可能会影响早期青春期女孩的区域结构大脑变化。FSH 的产生在双侧舌回中起着重要作用，而双侧舌回参与视觉处理、语义处理和情感表达。
