Trevisani Viola, Palandri Lucia, Righi Beatrice, Maione Domenico, De Pasquale Lisa, Tagliafico Enrico, Grisolia Chiarina, Tagliazucchi Mara, Predieri Barbara, Iughetti Lorenzo, Righi Elena, Lucaccioni Laura
Pediatric Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the Mothers, Children and Adults, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Policlinico di Modena, Via del Pozzo 71, Modena, 41124, Italy.
PhD program in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
J Endocrinol Invest. 2025 Mar;48(3):731-742. doi: 10.1007/s40618-024-02493-1. Epub 2024 Nov 4.
Minipuberty follows different trends in boys and girls. Aim of our study was to explore timing and dynamics of minipuberty in healthy infants, analyzing urinary levels of sexual hormones. Moreover, we analyzed the association among HPG axis activity and linear growth, ano-genital distances (AGDs) in both sexes, and penile length in males.
Longitudinal cohort study in healthy term infants from birth to 6 months of life. Clinical evaluation (anthropometrics and AGDs) and urine sampling were performed at 0 (T0), 3 (T3), and 6 (T6) months. Urine samples were analyzed for gonadotropins and sex hormones.
165 participants were involved. The growth trend of our population was regular, as were the AGDs. Urinary hormones were correlated each other's. Specifically, in boys, the correlation coefficient between urinary FSH (uFSH) and urinary LH (uLH) decreased from T0 to T6, while between urinary Testosterone (uT) and uFSH increased. In girls, correlations between uFSH and urinary Estradiol (uE) were observed at each time point. Notably, several correlations between hormones and anthropometrics and AGDs were found; the most interesting correlation was found in males within uLH and PL (at T0 ρ: 0.323, p < 0.05 and at T3 ρ: 0.371, p < 0.01), whereas in females uFSH at T0 showed negative correlations with both length and body weight percentile at T3 (ρ: -0.505, p < 0.01 and ρ: -0.478, p < 0.01, respectively).
Urinary matrix has proved to be a valuable, practical, non-invasive and cheaper method for sexual hormone assessment.
小青春期在男孩和女孩中呈现不同的趋势。我们研究的目的是通过分析尿中性激素水平，探讨健康婴儿小青春期的时间和动态变化。此外，我们分析了两性中下丘脑-垂体-性腺（HPG）轴活动与线性生长、肛殖距（AGD）以及男性阴茎长度之间的关联。
对健康足月儿从出生到6个月进行纵向队列研究。在0（T0）、3（T3）和6（T6）个月时进行临床评估（人体测量学和AGD）以及尿液采样。对尿液样本进行促性腺激素和性激素分析。
共纳入165名参与者。我们研究人群的生长趋势正常，AGD也是如此。尿激素之间相互关联。具体而言，在男孩中，尿促卵泡生成素（uFSH）和尿促黄体生成素（uLH）之间的相关系数从T0到T6下降，而尿睾酮（uT）和uFSH之间的相关性增加。在女孩中，每个时间点均观察到uFSH与尿雌二醇（uE）之间的相关性。值得注意的是，发现激素与人体测量学和AGD之间存在多种相关性；最有趣的相关性是在男性中uLH与阴茎长度（PL）之间的相关性（在T0时ρ：0.323，p < 0.05；在T3时ρ：0.371，p < 0.01），而在女性中T0时的uFSH与T3时的身长和体重百分位数均呈负相关（分别为ρ：-0.505，p < 0.01和ρ：-0.478，p < 0.01）。
尿液基质已被证明是一种用于性激素评估的有价值、实用、非侵入性且成本较低的方法。
