Abstract
Opioid peptides exert a tonic inhibitory effect on LH secretion, acting at the hypothalamic level in modulating LHRH release. Naloxone, an opiate receptor antagonist, has been used to evaluate the activity of such tonus. Previous data have demonstrated Naloxone inefficacy on circulating LH in prepuberal children. The present study refers the effects of Naloxone (0.08 mg/kg.B;w., i.v.) and LHRH (50 mcg i.v.) in healthy subjects subdivided according to puberal development, in 5 precocious and in 7 delayed puberty. In the normal controls and in precocious puberty patients, while LH-RH induced a significant rise of LH levels correlated to the puberal stages, Naloxone induced an LH increase only after P3 stage (P < 0.01). In the group of delayed puberty LH-RH stimulation increased LH levels in all subjects and, on the contrary, Naloxone was unable to modify circulating LH levels in all subjects. These data may suggest that the function of opiotergic neurons involved in the inhibitory control of LH secretion become active at the more advanced stages of puberty, indipendently from the age of the subjects or from the age of the onset of puberty. This assumption corroborate the concept that gonadal steroids play a fundamental role in modulating the tonus of central opioid system and support the hypothesis that the opioid system is involved in the neuroendocrine events of puberal maturation.
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Bernasconi, S., Petraglia, F., Virdis, R. et al. 188 LH RESPONSES TO NALOXONE IN NORMAL PRECOCIOUS AND DELAYEO PUBERTY. Pediatr Res 19, 634 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198506000-00208
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198506000-00208