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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 293/4/E970    most recent 00495.2006v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (9) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wudy, S. A. Articles by Remer, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wudy, S. A. Articles by Remer, T.

Sexual dimorphism in cortisol secretion starts after age 10 in healthy children: urinary cortisol metabolite excretion rates during growth

¹Steroid Research Unit, Center of Child and Adolescent Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen; and ²Department of Nutrition and Health, Research Institute of Child and Nutrition, Dortmund, Germany

Submitted 13 September 2006 ; accepted in final form 21 May 2007

Detailed data on the physiological pattern of adrenocortical activity during normal growth are lacking. An established method to determine adrenocortical glucocorticoid secretion is the measurement of 24-h excretion rates of major urinary cortisol metabolites (C21). To test the hypothesis that the frequently reported higher cortisol secretion in men than in women develops during puberty, we examined C21 together with excretions of combined urinary free and conjugated cortisol (F_comb) in 400 healthy boys and girls aged 3–18 yr using GC-MS. Daily excretion rates of C21, F_comb, and body surface area (BSA)-corrected F_comb significantly increased with age in both sexes. In contrast, C21/BSA (µg·m^–2·day^–1) declined from the age of 3–4 yr to 7–8 yr in boys and girls (P < 0.01; e.g., in boys: from 3,991 ± 1,167 to 3,193 ± 804), then increased in both sexes, and finally became discordant after the age of 11–12 yr with a further rise in males only (17- to 18-yr-olds: boys, 5,275 ± 1,414; girls 3,939 ± 1,586, P < 0.01). This pattern was associated with the occurrence of a lower index for 5-reductase activity (allotetrahydrocortisol/tetrahydrocortisol) in females compared with males. Our results demonstrate dynamic changes in adrenocortical activity in healthy children resulting in an emerging sexual dimorphism in cortisol secretion after age 11. The latter can be explained, at least partly, by diverging 5-reductase activities in boys and girls. F_comb, a frequently analyzed GC-MS parameter, proved not to reflect dynamic changes in cortisol secretion. In conclusion, the varying metabolic need for cortisol during normal growth may have implications for future improvements in glucocorticoid replacement therapy.

steroid; glucocorticoid; gas chromatography; mass spectrometry

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