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PubMed1989

[Two cases of myasthenia gravis associated with transient amenorrhea].

Two cases of acquired autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG) presenting transient amenorrhea were reported. Case 1, 28 years old, developed blepharoptosis and generalized fatigability at the age of 20 years. She had been treated only by anti-cholinesterase. Amenorrhea appeared at the age of 26 years. Then, physical examinations showed normal secondary sexual development and moderate myasthenic features. On laboratory examinations, SLE findings such as leucopenia (1,600/mm3), biologically false positivity in the serological tests for syphilis, negative Mantoux reaction, positive anti-nuclear and -DNA antibodies, were noted. Anti-AChR antibody was highly positive (max.: 353 nmol/l). Decreased E2 (13-15 pg/ml) and progesterone (0.21-0.29 ng/ml) values in serum, elevated LH (110-160 mIU/ml) and FSH (78-90 mIU/ml) and highly reactive LH-RH loading test were consistent with the hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. Thymus pathology of thymectomy which was done during amenorrhea, showed hyperplasia. Bilateral ovarian biopsy revealed a number of arrested primordial follicles, but neither inflammatory changes nor fibrosis. Immune complexes were not localized in the ovarian biopsy. The Kaufmann's therapy aggravated myasthenic symptoms. Menstruation recurred after 13 months of thymectomy. Amenorrhea continued for 18 months. Case 2, 37 years old, has had anti-epileptic regimens since the age of 4 years. She has been highly myasthenic for 15 years and treated by thymectomy, steroid hormone, plasmapheresis and some other therapies for 10 years. Amenorrhea occurred at the age of 34 years. Sexual development was normal. Myasthenia was very severe. On laboratory examinations, anti-AChR antibody was positive (max.: 941 nmol/l). Transient elevation of serum LH (37 mIU/l) and FSH (14 mIU/l) values was observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Foraging effort, food intake, fat deposition and puberty in female mice.

A novel caging system was used to study the interrelationships between foraging effort, food intake, growth and sexual maturation of peripubertal female mice. Females housed in these cages were forced to work (forage) at various intensities in order to obtain food pellets. It is argued that this is a biologically more meaningful approach to understanding the energetics of sexual development than the traditional approach of simple underfeeding. Female mice exhibited a cascade of developmental adjustments and deficits when challenged to forage harder for less food. The functions most sensitive to increased foraging effort were sexual development and growth in body length; growth in body weight was intermediate and fat deposition was least sensitive of all. The relative insensitivity of fat deposition to higher foraging costs suggests a strategy for survival during the postweaning dispersal movements of the wild ancestors of the laboratory mouse. Finally, regression analyses suggested that heavier females who had less than average body fat and higher than average food intake achieved their pubertal ovulation most rapidly.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed2000

Novel WD-repeat protein Mip1p facilitates function of the meiotic regulator Mei2p in fission yeast.

In fission yeast, the onset of meiosis is triggered by activation of the RNA-binding protein Mei2p. We screened for a high-copy-number suppressor of the ectopic meiosis induced by expression of an active form of Mei2p. Consequently we isolated a truncated form of a novel gene, named mip1, from a fission yeast genomic library. The mip1 gene encoded a protein of 1,313 amino acids which carried a WD-repeat motif in the C-terminal region and was apparently conserved among eukaryotes. Mip1p was cytoplasmic, and two-hybrid and immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrated that Mip1p was bound to Mei2p in vivo. Genetic evidence indicated that wild-type Mip1p was required for the function of Mei2p to induce meiosis and that the truncated form of it (Mip1-15p) dominantly interfered with Mei2p. Mip1p appeared to be involved also in conjugation, associating with Ste11p, which is a key transcription factor for sexual development. Furthermore, Mip1p was essential for cell growth, to which neither Mei2p nor Ste11p is relevant. These results suggest that Mip1p assists functional expression of a number of proteins required for proliferation and sexual development in fission yeast.

Alleles↗
PubMed1991

Changes in vertebral bone density in black girls and white girls during childhood and puberty.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of osteoporosis and the incidence of vertebral fractures are lower in black women than in white women, findings generally attributed to racial differences in adult bone mass. Little is known, however, about the factors that contribute to racial variations in bone mass or the time of life when such differences become manifest. This study was done to characterize the changes in vertebral bone density at various stages of sexual development in black and white females. METHODS: We measured cancellous vertebral bone density by quantitative computed tomography in 75 black female subjects between 2 and 20 years old and 75 whites matched for age and stage of sexual development. RESULTS: The vertebral bone density did not differ between black girls and white girls before puberty. Bone density increased during puberty in each racial group, but the magnitude of the increase from prepubertal values was substantially greater in black than in white subjects (34 percent vs. 11 percent). CONCLUSIONS: The marked difference between black and white females in cancellous vertebral bone density occurs during a relatively brief period late in puberty. Metabolic and hormonal events related to the achievement of sexual maturity during adolescence may be important determinants of racial differences in bone mass in women.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Normal reproductive organ development in Wistar rats exposed to bisphenol A in the drinking water.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used primarily as a monomer in the manufacture of numerous chemical products, such as epoxy resins and polycarbonate. The objective of this study was to evaluate potential effects of BPA on sexual development of male rats and was designed to clarify low-dose observations reported as preliminary results by Sharpe et al. (1996). The protocol for the present study followed the same treatment schedule as reported by Sharpe et al. (1995, 1996), but included more treatment groups, a greater number of animals per group, and a more comprehensive number of reproductive endpoints. Groups of 28 female Han-Wistar albino rats were exposed to drinking water that contained 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, or 10 ppm BPA or 0.1 ppm diethylstilbestrol (DES), 7 days per week, for a total of 10 weeks. Treatment of the females began at 10 weeks of age and continued throughout a 2-week premating period, 2 weeks of mating (to untreated males), 21-22 days of gestation, and 22 days of lactation. Offspring weanling males were given untreated drinking water and maintained until 90 days of age when evaluations were made of various reproductive organs. Consistent with Sharpe et al. (1996) the female offspring were not evaluated. No treatment-related effects on growth or reproductive endpoints were observed in adult females exposed to any concentration of BPA. Similarly, no treatment-related effects were observed on the growth, survival, or reproductive parameters (including testes, prostate and preputial gland weights, sperm count, daily sperm production, or testes histopathology) of male offspring from dams exposed to BPA during gestation and lactation. DES administered in the drinking water at 0. 1 ppm resulted in decreased body weight, body weight change, and food consumption in adult females. In addition, an increase in the duration of gestation and a decrease in the number of pups delivered and number of live pups were also observed in animals exposed to DES. In conclusion, these results do not confirm the previous findings of Sharpe et al. (1996) and show that low doses of BPA had no effects on male sexual development in the rat.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed1983

Influence of androgen on the development of sexual behavior in the rat. II. Time and dosage of androgen administration during the neonatal period and masculine and feminine copulatory behavior in females.

The objective of the present study was to delineate the period of sensitivity to a single androgen exposure during the initial neonatal hours on the development of masculine and feminine copulatory behavior in female rats. Female rats were injected once with either 500, 50, or 5 micrograms testosterone propionate (TP) at either 1 or 24 hr after birth. Following castration in adulthood and TP replacement, the females were tested four times at weekly intervals in prolonged sessions for masculine copulatory behavior. One month following the masculine copulatory tests the females were tested for 3 weeks for feminine copulatory behavior with weekly increasing levels of estradiol benzoate (2.5, 10, and 25 micrograms) and progesterone (200 micrograms). The results demonstrate that a single injection of TP administered at either 1 or 24 hr after birth can significantly increase the capacity of female rats to exhibit ejaculation patterns and that the amount of androgen that is administered is critical in determining the levels of ejaculatory responding. Similarly, the females given high doses (50 and 500 micrograms) of TP at either 1 or 24 hr neonatally were almost completely defeminized. In contrast, however, the females treated with 5 micrograms TP at 1 and 24 hr showed different levels of lordotic performance indicating a greater sensitivity to androgen immediately after birth than at 24 hr in female rats as has been shown in male rats.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2000

Physical growth, sexual maturation, body image and sickle cell disease.

PURPOSE: This study assessed delays in physical growth and sexual maturation, self-esteem and body image in youth with homozygous sickle hemoglobin disease (HgbSS). METHOD: A consecutive sample of 30 subjects age 8 through 19 with homozygous sickle cell disease (hemoglobin SS) and a similar number of control subjects matched for age, race, gender and socioeconomic status and free of chronic illness were examined for height, weight and Tanner staging of sexual development. Subjects also completed the Body Cathexis Scale and Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale. Assessments were with paired samples t-tests. RESULTS: The subjects with sickle cell disease had significantly lower weights and were shorter than matched control subjects. Sexual development (physical) was also delayed in the sickle cell subjects. The study failed to find significant differences for either body image or self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS: The latency age and adolescent subjects with sickle cell disease had significant delays in physical (height, weight, secondary sexual characteristics) maturation. The study failed to find significant differences in either self-esteem or body image between the two groups. Theoretical constructs from the literature were presented which questioned the belief that these expected delays in physical growth and sexual maturation have an adverse effect upon self-esteem and body image.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Preweaning stimulation with urinary chemosignals and age of puberty in female mice.

Six experiments were conducted to assess the effects of preweaning stimulation with urinary chemosignals from four different sources on the age of sexual maturation in young female mice. The urinary chemosignals tested were those in male urine, urine from females in estrus, urine from pregnant or lactating females, and urine from females housed in groups. The split-litter technique was used for assigning mice to particular treatments. When treatments were applied during the period from 2 to 11 days postpartum, none of the chemosignals exerted any detectable influence on the age of first vaginal estrus. All 4 chemosignal treatments were effective in altering the age of puberty when treatment was applied daily from Days 12 to 21 postpartum. For urine from males and urine from estrous females, 3 days of treatment during the last 10 days prior to weaning at 21 days of age were sufficient to produce an acceleration of puberty. For urine from pregnant or lactating females, 5 days of treatment just prior to weaning were necessary to produce an acceleration of sexual development. For urine from grouped females, delays in puberty were produced only when the treatment lasted for 7 of the last 10 days prior to weaning. These findings suggest that the preweaning stimulus environment of young female mice may be important for their later sexual development. Further, use of the split-litter technique permitted the determination that variation in the age of puberty was smaller within than between litters; inheritance and/or maternal influences are clearly important factors affecting the age of sexual maturation.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1981

The development of sexuality and eroticism in humankind.

Sexuality includes eroticism. Though its determinants are multivariate and developmentally sequential, most current biological theories arbitrarily exclude social determinants, and vice versa. Developmentally, masculinization is not necessarily synonymous with defeminization, nor feminization with demasculinization. In the development of brain and behavior, behavior that appears to be either male or female may actually be sex-shared but sex-different in the threshold for its expression. Parent-child bonding is a precursor of subsequent erotosexual pair-bonding. Suppression of erotosexual rehearsal play in childhood is a precursor of postpubertal and adult erotosexual pathology. The criterion defining the heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual conditions is the sex of the partner with whom a limerent (falling-in-love) pairbond is possible; and there is no evidence that pubertal sex steroids, per se, are responsible for which of the three it will be. The phases of an erotosexual encounter are proception, acception, and conception. The disorders of proception, manifested in both imagery and practice, are the paraphilic syndromes (formerly known as perversions). The disorders of acception may be either hypophilic deficiencies, or hyperphilic increases. The disorders of conception are those of infertility. There is a nonsystematic relationship of erotosexualism to the hormonal cycle of the menses and to gerontological hormonal changes.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

The a mating-type alleles of Ustilago maydis are idiomorphs.

Two unlinked incompatibility loci, a and b, control mating, pathogenicity, and sexual development in Ustilago maydis, a fungal pathogen of corn. Fusion of nonpathogenic haploid cells occurs when alleles of the a locus differ; fusion products that differ at the b locus will be pathogenic and complete sexual development. The two alleles of the a locus have been cloned. The a2 allele was isolated by exploiting the close linkage of the a locus to the genetic marker pan1. Several cosmids from a clonal a2 mating-type library allowed, via DNA-mediated transformation, an a1 mating type, pan1-1 auxotrophic recipient to grow prototrophically on medium lacking pantothenic acid. Cosmids containing functional a2 mating-type regions were identified by their ability to confer a2 mating behavior to the a1 recipient strain. The a1 allele was isolated from a plasmid library using DNA from the a2 region as a hybridization probe. The isolated clones contain a1 or a2 mating-type specificity as demonstrated by a plate mating assay, by pathogenicity tests on corn, and by gene replacement experiments. The a1 and a2 mating-type clones contain nonhomologous DNA segments that are flanked by similar nucleotide (nt) sequences. Restriction fragments containing a mating-type function are embedded within the nonhomologous DNA segments. U. maydis contains a single copy of either the a1 or a2 mating-type sequence within each haploid genome. This structural organization demonstrates that the a mating-type alleles of U. maydis are idiomorphs sensu Metzenberg and Glass (1990), nt sequences mapping to the same genetic locus that share no obvious evolutionary relationship.

Alleles↗
PubMed2002

Hermaphroditic, demasculinized frogs after exposure to the herbicide atrazine at low ecologically relevant doses.

Atrazine is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and probably the world. It can be present at several parts per million in agricultural runoff and can reach 40 parts per billion (ppb) in precipitation. We examined the effects of atrazine on sexual development in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Larvae were exposed to atrazine (0.01-200 ppb) by immersion throughout larval development, and we examined gonadal histology and laryngeal size at metamorphosis. Atrazine (> or =0.1 ppb) induced hermaphroditism and demasculinized the larynges of exposed males (> or =1.0 ppb). In addition, we examined plasma testosterone levels in sexually mature males. Male X. laevis suffered a 10-fold decrease in testosterone levels when exposed to 25 ppb atrazine. We hypothesize that atrazine induces aromatase and promotes the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. This disruption in steroidogenesis likely explains the demasculinization of the male larynx and the production of hermaphrodites. The effective levels reported in the current study are realistic exposures that suggest that other amphibian species exposed to atrazine in the wild could be at risk of impaired sexual development. This widespread compound and other environmental endocrine disruptors may be a factor in global amphibian declines.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Short stature at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Twenty four patients were evaluated for short stature at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, over a seven year period. Fourteen were males, 10 were females and their ages ranged from 6 to 23 years at first presentation. Nine out of the 10 females came to the hospital primarily because of failure of sexual development whereas only 1 of the 14 males presented with this complaint. The causes of short stature were as follows: idiopathic hypopituitarism in 5 (20.8%) patients (4 males, 1 female), gonadal dysgenesis in 5 patients (all females), syndrome of hepatosplenomegaly, dwarfism and poor sexual development in 5 patients (all males); 2 (8.3%) patients had hypothalamic-pituitary lesions, 2 had juvenile hypothyroidism and 1 (4.2%) had sickle cell hemoglobinopathy; the cause of the short stature was not certain in 4 (16.7%) patients. This is perhaps the first time that the syndrome of hepatosplenomegaly of uncertain etiology with delayed growth and sexual maturation previously reported in Iranian and Egyptian adolescents, is being described in black Africans. Although comprehensive hormonal data were not available in most of these patients, this clinical descriptive study is the first attempt at reporting some of the causes of short stature in Nigerians.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

The effect of lean growth rate on puberty attainment in gilts.

Two hundred sixteen prepubertal Genex Manor hybrid F1 gilts were used to determine the impact of lean growth rate on sexual development of gilts. This study was composed of two experiments (Exp. 1 and Exp. 2). In Exp. 1, at approximately 96 d of age and 54 kg weight, gilts were allocated with respect to growth rate and litter origin to one of two dietary treatments: 1) a diet formulated to maximize lean growth potential (LP; n = 84) or 2) a diet formulated to produce a lower lean growth rate (LL; n = 84). In Exp. 2, at approximately 88 d of age and 50 kg weight, gilts were allocated with respect to growth rate and litter origin to one of two dietary treatments: 1) a diet formulated to maximize lean growth potential (LP; n = 24) or 2) a diet formulated to restrict lean growth further than was achieved in LL in Exp. 1 (RL; n = 24). All gilts were fed treatment diets for ad libitum consumption and housed in groups of six. Weight, backfat depth and loin depth, and feed intake were measured weekly. Starting at 135 d of age, gilts received 20 min of direct daily exposure to a boar as a pen group for pubertal stimulation. Puberty attainment was determined as the day gilts first exhibited the standing reflex in response to contact with a boar. At pubertal estrus, body weight, backfat depth, and loin depths were recorded. Diet affected (P < or = 0.05) estimated fat-free lean gain (LP, 424 vs LL, 347 g/d, Exp. 1; LP, 397 vs RL, 376 g/d, Exp. 2) during the growth period (start to stimulation). However, age at puberty was not affected by diet (LP, 157.3 vs LL, 157.6, Exp. 1; LP, 166.7 vs RL, 167.3, Exp. 2) or overall lean growth at stimulation (P > or = 0.05 in both experiments), confirming that innate variability in sexual development of commercial genotypes, rather than growth performance, determines onset of sexual maturity. A negative correlation between age at puberty and growth rate from 50 kg until puberty (P < or = 0.05) (LP, r = -0.40, LL, r = -0.36, Exp. 1; LP, r = -0.64, RL, r = -0.48, Exp. 2) was a consequence of reduced lean tissue growth during the stimulation period in later-maturing gilts.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1989

Maturational changes in the LH response of domestic fowl to synthetic chicken LHRH-I and -II.

Treatment of chickens at different stages of sexual development with a single i.v. injection of synthetic chicken LHRH (cLHRH)-I or -II stimulated a rise in the plasma concentration of LH within 1 min. The activity of cLHRH-II was 1.3- to 2.7-fold greater than that of cLHRH-I in sexually immature cockerels and hens as determined by the changes in the plasma concentration of LH during the 5 or 10 min after injection. This could be attributed to both a greater effectiveness of cLHRH-II to stimulate LH release and to a more prolonged action. Thus, LH concentrations in plasma were maximal within 1-2 min of injection of all doses of cLHRH-I but within 2-5 min of injection at the higher doses of cLHRH-II. The responsiveness of the pituitary gland to cLHRH-I and -II was substantially greater in the sexually immature cockerel than in the hen and diminished during sexual development of the hen. Coincident with the onset of egg laying, the characteristics of the LH response to cLHRH-II changed to consist of an initial rise during the first 2 min, followed by a more sustained increase with LH concentrations still rising 10 min after injection. In contrast, after injection with cLHRH-I, plasma concentrations of LH rose to a peak at 2 min and thereafter declined gradually. Treatment of the sexually immature hen with oestradiol, progesterone or a combination of both steroids did not enable the expression of a laying hen-type response to the injection of cLHRH-II.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

[Educational level and psychosexual adaptation in women].

By means of a structured interview the author examined the course of sexual development and life in 862 young married women born after 1951. Women with primary education (n = 425) started full sex life significantly sooner than women with a higher education (n = 437) Contrary to probands born in 1911 to 1950, no major differences were found in the member of coital partners before marriage, in the coital activity and reactivity. The author confirms the hypothesis that differences in sexual development and life between different social groups diminish markedly.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Revealing the molecular determinants of gender in malaria parasites.

Malaria parasites have a complex life cycle with asexual multiplication in a vertebrate host and obligate sexual reproduction in the mosquito; however, commitment to sexual development begins in the vertebrate with differentiation of female and male gametocytes. In this issue of Cell, Khan et al. (2005) used elegant approaches to purify male and female gametocytes and elucidated their respective proteome, providing the basis for understanding sexual development in this pathogen.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Zinc deficiency occurring in females. Report of two cases.

The syndrome of dwarfism, hypogonadism, iron-deficiency anemia and geophagia, first reported in 1960 from Iran, was thought to be limited to males. In 1971-1972 two females with the same clinical features were observed over a 14-month period. The anemia responded rapidly to iron. Growth and sexual development occurred promptly when 120 mg of zinc sulfate was administered daily in conjunction with a well-balanced diet and iron supplement. This diet prior to the addition of zinc sulfate, resulted in gradual but much slower growth and sexual development. Observations in these two patients provide confirmation of the occurrence of human zinc deficiency in females, which responds to large doses of zinc salt.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Evidence for interaction of Schizophyllum commune Y mating-type proteins in vivo.

The Aalpha mating-type locus of Schizophyllum commune regulates sexual development and contains the code for two proteins, Y and Z, which are thought to form a complex and function as a transcription factor. Import of these proteins into the nucleus may be an essential step in Aalpha-regulated sexual development. The Y proteins contain a bipartite basic sequence, which is an excellent candidate for a nuclear localization sequence (NLS), while Z proteins contain no such sequence. Here we describe experiments in which deletions were made in the putative NLS sequence of Y4. We show that this putative NLS is essential to the function of the Y protein and capable of mislocalizing green fluorescent protein (GFP) to the nucleus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Further, we describe genetic experiments that demonstrate the first Y-Y protein interactions in vivo. These results are consistent with our previously postulated hypothesis that the Y-Z complex is likely to be of a higher order than dimer.

Amino Acid Sequence↗