THE NOCTURNAL RISE OF PLASMA TESTOSTERONE IN PUBERTAL BOYS.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To evaluate the effect on testicular function of the sleep related LH rise in pubertal subjects, identical twin boys (JA-1; JA-2) in stage 2 of puberty were studied for 36 hours using a frequent sampling technique. While each subject was awake the mean ± S.E. testosterone (T) level was 257 ± 41 and 325 ± 31 pg/ml for JA-1 and JA-2 respectively. Each night with the commencement of sleep, sharp increases of T and LH but not FSH levels occurred. The nocturnal elevations of T reached peaks of 1887 and 1833 pg/ml for the same respective subjects and were always preceded by the sleep related LH rises. The interval between the nocturnal LH r i se and the beginning of the subsequent T elevation was 40-80 minutes. This data suggests that in adolescent boys the sleep related LH increase stimulates a nocturnal rise of T. This androgen increase could account for some of the early pubertal changes seen in males.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: