Cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Triglycerides During Puberty: The Oslo Youth Study

Abstract

The relationships of serum total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and fasting triglycerides (adjusted for body mass index, wt/ht2) with stages of pubertal development were examined in a Norwegian population of 920 adolescents, aged 10 to 16 years. For 13- and 14-year-olds, all five stages of Tanner's maturity index were represented. For the whole population, total serum cholesterol showed a larger decrease when related to sexual maturity stage than to chronologic age. For females, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides increased significantly when related to age in years; this was not found when related to the maturity index. Triglycerides showed a larger increase when related to chronologic age in males as compared with sexual maturity stage. Both among 13- and 14-year-old males, the most mature had significantly lower values for total cholesterol than the least mature. For 12-year-old males, HDL cholesterol decreased significantly with increasing sexual maturation. Among females, the more mature 12-year-olds had significantly lower values for total cholesterol compared with the less mature. Early maturing 13-, 14- and 15-16-year-olds had lower levels of HDL cholesterol compared with late maturers. These findings suggest that age in years may be a poor index of development in adolescents and that a measure of physiologic developmental age should be included in epidemiologic studies of serum lipids among adolescents.

Changes in Fasting Lipids during Puberty

“…Males and females showed significant decreases in TC and LDL-C levels during puberty and that pattern was similar to those reported on TC changes in most of the previous studies. 17,20,25,39 Other studies found a significant decrease in plasma TC in males only. 12-15 …”

“…The influence of hormonal changes associated with puberty on lipid levels is documented, and several studies have described lipid levels during these pubertal changes. 17,19,20,25,26 However, the pattern of changes of blood lipid components varied among these studies and changes of non-HDL-C were not described. These data are derived from studies where sexual maturation was assessed once in cross-sectional studies and annually or semiannually, at most, in longitudinal studies.…”

Relationship between serum HDL-C levels and common genetic variants of the endothelial lipase gene in Japanese school-aged children

“…Our subjects were 9-15 year olds, and almost all were in puberty, a time at which serum sex hormone levels and body mass change dramatically; these changes affect serum lipid levels (Tell et al 1985;Bertrais et al 2000). Unfortunately, we were unable to determine serum sex hormone levels in our subjects.…”

Serum Lipids, Lipoproteins and Apolipoproteins in Children With and Without Familial History of Premature Coronary Heart Disease

“…Familial history of MI was obtained through question naires completed by the study participants and their par ents. Because of the age dependency of lipid and lipoprotein values [10,11], the participants were divided into two groups, > and <20 years.…”