MKRN3 levels in girls with central precocious puberty and correlation with sexual hormone levels: a pilot study

Abstract

We showed that girls with central precocious puberty had lower peripheral levels of MKRN3 compared to age-matched pairs and that they negatively correlated to gonadotropins, estrogen, and BMI. Our findings support the MKRN3 involvement in central precocious puberty also in absence of deleterious mutations, although our sample size is small. In addition our data suggest the role of MKRN3 in the complex mechanism controlling puberty onset and its interaction with other factors affecting puberty such as nutrition.

MKRN3 Levels in Girls with Central Precocious Puberty during GnRHa Treatment: A Longitudinal Study

“…Similarly, in the present study, MKRN3 levels declined after the initiation of GnRH in the whole population, and the MKRN3 serum level modifications were evident, independently from the absolute serum levels detected. Moreover, in our previous work, we found that levels of MKRN3 in CPP girls were similar to those found in the present report [22], making MKRN3 assay results in our laboratory consistent.…”

“…Despite these differences, the serum levels of MKRN3 showed the same trend: levels declined before puberty onset and were lower in patients with precocious puberty compared with matched healthy subjects [19-22]. Similarly, in the present study, MKRN3 levels declined after the initiation of GnRH in the whole population, and the MKRN3 serum level modifications were evident, independently from the absolute serum levels detected.…”

“…In a recent work, we assessed the MKRN3 level in a population of CPP girls, and we found that pretreatment levels were lower than in age-matched pairs and comparable to pubertal stage-matched girls [22]. The main finding of the present study is that MKRN3 declined significantly after 6 and 12 months of GnRHa treatment.…”

“…Another 2 current studies reported a similar MKRN3 decline prior to pubertal onset in healthy boys [20, 21]. We recently showed that girls with CPP had lower peripheral levels of MKRN3 compared to age-matched pairs and similar levels to patients in the same pubertal stage [22]. …”

“…Large differences in measured circulating MKRN3 levels between studies, although using the same assay, are evident from available literature [19-22]. One of the possible explanations could be differences in the maximum storage time of the serum between studies [19-22] because it could hypothetically have influenced the serum levels for a partial degradation of MKRN3 with time.…”