Abstract

The marked increase in circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels during puberty observed in primates indicates an important functional relationship between hypothalamic-pituitary gonadal function and hormonal regulation of peripubertal circulating IGF-I levels. Recent studies demonstrating local production and secretion of gonadal peptides including IGF-I suggest that increased circulating IGF-I levels during puberty might be due to direct gonadal secretion of IGF-I or alternatively to indirect effects of increased gonadal steroid secretion on nongonadal tissues including the hypothalamus, pituitary, and liver. We therefore studied the effects of prepubertal castration on the pubertal IGF-I surge and demonstrate that castration provokes a further increase rather than ablation of the pubertal IGF-I surge in the rat. Furthermore, neonatal treatment with monosodium glutamate, a hypothalamic neurotoxin, abolishes the pubertal IGF-I surge when commenced on postnatal day 1 but not on day 5, whereas treatment with a GnRH antagonist commencing within 12 h of birth significantly reduces but does not abolish the pubertal IGF-I surge. We therefore propose that the pubertal IGF-I surge in the rat is not due to direct gonadal secretion of IGF-I or other gonadal hormones during puberty but may involve hypothalamic and/or hepatic programming by events during prenatal or very early postnatal life.