Plasma kisspeptin and ghrelin levels in puberty disturbances

Premature and delayed puberty can be seen mostly in childhood age. Despite of this, exact mechanism of this disturbances can?t be clarified. We know that kisspeptin and ghrelin has effects on normal puberty throughout hypothalamus. The purpose of this study is, if there is a role of kisspeptin and ghrelin in puberty variant (premature telarche, premature adrenarche) and delayed puberty.The children between the ages of 1-18 are to be elected in our study. Cases are seperated as premature telarche (n=40), premature adrenarche (n=23, F/M=20/3) and delayed puberty (n=19, F/M=5/14). We compose control groups in all cases due to their age and sex. Kisspeptin and ghrelin levels are measured with ELISA method which the blood samples are taken while hungry.In our cases plasma kisspeptin levels are markedly increased as we compare with control group in premature telarche (respectively 165.47±15.45 pmol/L, 96.82±12.33 pmol/L, p=0.005). In premature adrenarche group kisspeptin levels has not a distinct difference between control groups (respectively 121.36±17.99 pmol/L, 95.52±11.54 pmol /L, p=0.249). We could not find a significant difference in the ghrelin levels as compared with the control groups in premature telarche and premature adrenarche. However kisspeptin levels compared with control groups in delayed puberty are significantly low (respectively 62.80±30.53 pmol/L, 125.72±46.58 pmol/L, p<0.001), there was no difference between ghrelin levels. There was no correlation between kisspeptin and ghrelin in any group.Our results show that kisspeptin has a positive effect on premature telarche, but has a negative effect on delayed puberty. On the other hand ghrelin has no effect on puberty disturbances.Key words:Premature telarche, premature adrenarche, delayed puberty, ghrelin, kisspeptin