Abstract

Objective

Puberty is a sensitive period of brain development accompany with pubertal hormones fluctuation. However, the underlying mechanisms of the impact of hypothalamus–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis reactivation and associated elevated pubertal hormones on brain structure are still unclear. Here, we investigated the brain structure differences between girls with and without HPG axis reactivation and the influence of pubertal hormones on these brain regions.

Methods

126 girls aged 8–9.5 years underwent a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation test to identify the HPG axis status and categorized into HPG+ group (n = 80) and HPG- group (n = 46). T1-weighted gradient echo three dimensional MRI was performed using a 3.0-Tesla scanner to assess the difference in GMV between the two groups. Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relations between the brain regions showing significant GMV differences and serum hormone concentrations.

Result

The HPG+ group showed significantly higher GMV in the bilateral lingual gyrus and lower GMV within the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus compare to the HPG − group. Furthermore, GMV in the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus was positively associated with plasma concentrations of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in HPG+ group.

Conclusion

The present study suggests that the reactivated HPG axis could affects regional structural brain changes in early pubertal girls. FSH production play an important role in bilateral lingual gyrus, which are involved in vision processing, semantic processing and emotional expression.

中文翻译：

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下丘脑-垂体-性腺轴再激活和青春期激素对青春期早期女孩灰质体积的影响

摘要

客观的

青春期是伴随青春期荷尔蒙波动的大脑发育敏感期。然而，下丘脑 - 垂体 - 性腺（HPG）轴再激活和相关的青春期激素升高对大脑结构影响的潜在机制仍不清楚。在这里，我们调查了有和没有 HPG 轴再激活的女孩之间的大脑结构差异以及青春期激素对这些大脑区域的影响。

方法

126 名 8-9.5 岁的女孩接受了促性腺激素释放激素 (GnRH) 刺激试验以确定 HPG 轴状态，并分为 HPG+ 组 ( n  = 80) 和 HPG- 组 ( n  = 46)。使用 3.0 特斯拉扫描仪进行 T1 加权梯度回波三维 MRI 以评估两组之间 GMV 的差异。进行相关性分析以探索显示出显着 GMV 差异的大脑区域与血清激素浓度之间的关系。

结果

与 HPG - 组相比，HPG+ 组在双侧舌回中显示出显着更高的 GMV 和在右眶额下回中更低的 GMV。此外，HPG+组右侧眶额下回的GMV与血浆促卵泡激素（FSH）浓度呈正相关。

结论

本研究表明，重新激活的 HPG 轴可能会影响青春期早期女孩的区域性大脑结构变化。FSH的产生在双侧舌回中起重要作用，涉及视觉加工、语义加工和情绪表达。