ESPE Abstracts

Background: Premature pubarche (PP) is known to be a risk factor the development of metabolic syndrome (MS) and hyperandrogenism.

Aims: To evaluate if glucose and insulin metabolism, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular risk factors in family (FCVRF) create a risk for insulin resistance (IR) and if PP is a risk factor alone for MS and hyperandrogenism in normal weighted prepubertal PP girls.

Methods: Prepubertal and non-obese 35 PP girls with normal birth weight (BW) and 35 healthy controls with same properties were evaluated for BW, gestation week (GW), FCVRF, anthropometric measurements, lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, HbA1c, SHBG, leptin, adiponectin, TNFα, 17OHP, DHEAS, AS, testosterone, and bone age. HOMA-IR, fasting glucose/insulin ratio, atherogenic index (AI), and free androgen index (FAI) were calculated. OGTT was performed on PP cases. PP cases were also divided into two subgroups according to the presence of FCVRF.

Results: The mean ages were 8.3±1.1 and 8.1±1 years in PP group and control group respectively. BW, GW, FCVRF, heightSDS, weightSDS, and bone ageSDS were similar between groups, whereas BMI SDS was significantly higher in PP group (P=0.026). Fasting and postprandial glucose and insulin levels in PP group and fasting glucose, insulin levels in control group were normal. HbA1c, lipid profiles, testosterone, leptin, adiponectin, TNFα, HOMA-IR, and AI were all similar. In PP group SHBG was significantly lower (P=0.010), whereas FAI was significantly higher (P=0.001) than in control group. Mean leptin levels were significantly higher in FCVRF+ group than in FCVRF− group (P=0.016).

Conclusion: This study results indicate that PP is not a risk factor alone for impaired glucose metabolism and IR in non-obese girls with normal BW before puberty. Additionally, low SHBG levels can be a predictive marker of hyperandrogenism in prepubertal girls with PP and high leptin levels in FCVR+ subgroup of upcoming obesity in the future.

Funding: This work was supported by the Trakya University School of Medicine Research Council.