Urinary and salivary endocrine measurements to complement Tanner staging in studies of pubertal development

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 5; p. e0251598
• Main Authors: Goldberg, Mandy, Ciesielski Jones, Anna J, McGrath, John A, Barker-Cummings, Christie, Cousins, Deborah S, Kipling, Lauren M, Meadows, Juliana W, Kesner, James S, Marcus, Michele, Monteilh, Carolyn, Sandler, Dale P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 13.05.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Breast; Brochures; Chemical properties; Children & youth; Creatinine; Data analysis; Demographic aspects; Editing; Electronic mail; Environmental health; Epidemiology; Families & family life; Function tests (Medicine); Health sciences; Hormones; Meadows; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methodology; Methods; Occupational safety; Pediatrics; People and Places; Physiological aspects; Population; Population studies; Puberty; Public health; Questionnaires; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Schools; Technology; Urine; United States; North Carolina; Atlanta Georgia; Iowa; Ohio; Georgia; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251598

Many studies investigating pubertal development use Tanner staging to assess maturation. Endocrine markers in urine and saliva may provide an objective, sensitive, and non-invasive method for assessing development. Our objective was to examine whether changes in endocrine levels can indicate the onset of pubertal development prior to changes in self-rated Tanner stage. Thirty-five girls and 42 boys aged 7 to 15 years were enrolled in the Growth and Puberty (GAP) study, a longitudinal pilot study conducted from 2007-2009 involving children of women enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) in Iowa. We collected saliva and urine samples and assessed pubertal development by self-rated Tanner staging (pubic hair, breast development (girls), genital development (boys)) at three visits over six months. We measured dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in saliva and creatinine-adjusted luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estrone 3-glucuronide (E13G) and pregnanediol 3-glucuronide (Pd3G) concentrations in first morning urine. We evaluated the relationships over time between Tanner stage and each biomarker using repeated measures analysis. Among girls still reporting Tanner breast stage 1 at the final visit, FSH levels increased over the 6-month follow-up period and were no longer lower than higher stage girls at the end of follow-up. We observed a similar pattern for testosterone in boys. By visit 3, boys still reporting Tanner genital stage 1 or pubic hair stage 1 had attained DHEA levels that were comparable to those among boys reporting Tanner stages 2 or 3. Increasing concentrations of FSH in girls and DHEA and testosterone in boys over a 6-month period revealed the start of the pubertal process prior to changes in self-rated Tanner stage. Repeated, non-invasive endocrine measures may complement the more subjective assessment of physical markers in studies determining pubertal onset.