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Alterations in Growth and Body Composition During Puberty: III. Influence of Maturation, Gender, Body Composition, Fat Distribution, Aerobic Fitness, and Energy Expenditure on Nocturnal Growth Hormone Release¹

University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology (J.N.R., P.A.C., A.D.R.); Department of Radiology (V.M., S.S.B.); Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (A.W., J.D.V.); Department of Pharmacology (A.D.R.); and University of Virginia, Curry School of Education (A.W.), Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: James N. Roemmich, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, Box 386, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908. E-mail: jr5n{at}virginia.edu

We examined the relationships among gender, sexual maturation, four-compartment model estimates of body composition, body fat distribution (magnetic resonance imaging for abdominal visceral fat and anthropometrics), aerobic fitness, basal and total energy expenditure, and overnight GH release in an ultrasensitive chemiluminescence assay in healthy prepubertal and pubertal boys (n = 18 and 11, respectively) and girls (n = 12 and 18, respectively). Blood samples were withdrawn every 10 min from 1800–0600 h to determine the area under the serum GH-time curve (AUC), sum of the GH peak heights ( GH peak heights), and the mean nadir GH concentration. GH release was greater in the pubertal than prepubertal subjects due to an increase in GH peak heights (43.8 ± 3.6 vs. 24.1 ± 3.5 ng·mL^-1, P = 0.0002) and mean nadir (1.7 ± 0.2 vs. 0.7 ± 0.2 ng·mL^-1, P = 0.0002), but not peak number (4.3 ± 0.2 vs. 4.5 ± 0.2). The girls had a greater GH peak heights (39.0 ± 3.5 vs. 28.8 ± 3.6 ng·mL^-1, P = 0.05) and mean nadir concentration (1.4 ± 0.2 vs. 0.9 ± 0.2 ng·mL^-1, P = 0.05) than the boys. Significant inverse relationships existed between GH peak heights (r = -0.35, P = 0.06) or mean nadir (r = -0.39, P = 0.04) and four-compartment percent body fat for all boys but not for all girls or when combining all subjects. For all girls, significant inverse relationships existed between GH peak heights (r = -0.39, P = 0.03) or mean nadir (r = -0.37, P = 0.04) and waist/hip ratio. Similar inverse relationships in all boys or all subjects were not significant. Forward stepwise regression analysis determined that bone age (i.e. maturation, primary factor) and gender were the significant predictors of AUC, GH peak heights, and mean nadir. The influence of maturation reflects rising sex steroid concentrations, and the gender differences appear to be because of differences in estradiol concentrations rather than to body composition or body fat distribution.

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