[Relationship between sexual maturation and subcutaneous fat]

Due to the great variability at the beginnings and the period of the puberty, authors have studied the modifications of the subcutaneous-fat and their relation with the sexual maturating. They have measured the skinfold thickness of biceps, triceps, subscapular and suprailiac in 358 boys from 10 to 15 years old and 424 girls from 8 to 14 years old inrelation to sexual maturating through the stages described by Tanner. It has been found more subcutaneous fat in girls than in boys (p less than 0.05). The boys increase their subcutaneous fat until the stage 3 (except the skinfold triceps) and decrease later (except the skinfold subscapular). In boys, the analysis of varianza, show that the variations are related with the sexual maturating and not with chronologic age.