Change in blood pressure during pubertal insulin resistance

To examine the levels and relationship of blood pressure and insulin during puberty, blood pressure and serum insulin were measured in 3596 subjects, aged 3-18 y, whose pubertal status was graded according to the Tanner classification. The same study protocol was repeated in two follow-up surveys 3 and 6 y later for 2991 6-21-y-old subjects and 2799 9-24-y-old subjects, respectively. There was a 37-66% increase in insulin at Tanner stage 3 (pubic hair) among the female subjects and at Tanner stage 5 (pubic hair) among the male subjects, after which insulin started to decrease. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased steadily throughout puberty. The rise in blood pressure continued during early adulthood, despite the decrease in serum insulin. The correlation between systolic blood pressure and insulin measured in the same year was weak at each pubertal stage after standardization for weight, except among the female subjects at mid puberty. There was no relation between diastolic blood pressure and insulin. Adult systolic blood pressure could be predicted by pubertal insulin among the male subjects after adjustment for age and weight (partial correlation coefficient 0.21), but among the female subjects this relation was trivial (partial correlation coefficient 0.08). We conclude that the correlation between insulin and actual blood pressure vanishes during puberty, whereas pubertal insulin and future adult male systolic blood pressure seem to correlate.