Urinary sex steroids and anthropometric markers of puberty - A novel approach to characterising within-person changes of puberty hormones

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Author: Singh G.K.S.; Balzer B.W.R.; Kelly P.J.; Paxton K.; Hawke C.I.; Handelsman D.J.; Steinbeck K.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2015
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84957928548&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0143555&partnerID=40&md5=d46f4d0010fc81d2a76c3cc9722a8e34

Background/Aims: The longitudinal relationships of within-individual hormone and anthropometric changes during puberty have not ever been fully described. The objectives of this study were to demonstrate that 3 monthly urine collection was feasible in young adolescents and to utilise liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay methods for serum and urine testosterone (T), estradiol (E2) and luteinizing hormone (LH) in adolescents by relating temporal changes in urine and serum hormones over 12 months to standard measures of pubertal development. Methods: A community sample of 104 adolescents (57 female) was studied over 12 months with annual anthropometric assessment, blood sampling and self-rated Tanner staging and urine collected every 3 months. Serum and urine sex steroids (T, E2) were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and LH by immunoassay. Results: A high proportion (92%) of scheduled samples were obtained with low attrition rate of 6.7% over the 12 months. Urine hormone measurements correlated cross-sectionally and longitudinally with age, anthropometry and Tanner stage. Conclusion: We have developed a feasible and valid sampling methodology and measurements for puberty hormones in urine, which allows a sampling frequency by which individual pubertal progression in adolescents can be described in depth. © 2015 Singh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.