Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2025
06:38
Determination of Reproductive Competence by Confirming Pubertal Onset and Performing a Fertility Assay in Mice and Rats
Published on: October 13, 2018
15.3K
Environmental factors trigger pubertal development.
Sofia Malave-Ortiz1, Cameron Grant, Natalie D Shaw
1Pediatric Neuroendocrinology Group, Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Current Opinion in Pediatrics
|February 27, 2025
Summary
Environmental factors are increasingly linked to earlier puberty. Research suggests pollutants, metals, and stress impact the reproductive axis, necessitating further study into exposure levels and mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Endocrinology
- Environmental Health
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Secular trend of earlier pubertal development observed globally.
- Growing concern regarding the role of environmental factors in pubertal timing.
- Potential influence of environmental exposures on the developing reproductive axis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the secular trend of earlier puberty.
- To explore the potential role of environmental factors in this trend.
- To examine how environmental factors may influence the reproductive axis.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent scientific literature and epidemiological studies.
- Analysis of proposed mechanisms linking environmental factors to pubertal timing.
- Highlighting key findings from animal and human studies.
Main Results:
- Environmental compounds may influence pubertal timing via sex steroid and neuropeptide receptors, and epigenetic regulators.
- Studies link air pollution, metals, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), sleep duration, early life adversity, and stress to earlier pubertal timing.
- Evidence suggests multiple environmental factors contribute to altered pubertal development.
Conclusions:
- Pubertal timing is a complex interplay of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors.
- While several environmental factors are implicated, further research is needed.
- Critical exposure levels, sensitive developmental windows, and underlying mechanisms require elucidation.
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