Metabolic disease is a significant global health and economic Sex steroid hormone production and feedback mechanisms that PNA females had advanced pubertal onset and a delay in the time to first litter, compared with vehicle-treated controls. The PNA mice also had elevated testosterone, irregular estrous cy- clicity, and advanced reproductive senescence. To assess the im- portance of the window of androgen exposure, dihydrotestos- terone was administered to a separate cohort of female mice on postnatal d 21-23 [prepubertal androgenization (PPA)]. PPA sig- nificantly advanced the timing of pubertal onset, as observed by age of the vaginal opening, yet had no effects on T testosterone or estrous cycling in adulthood. The absence of kisspeptin re- ceptor in Kiss1r-null mice did not change the acceleration of puberty by the PNA and PPA paradigms, indicating that kisspep- tin signaling is not required for androgens to advance puberty. Thus, prenatal, but not prepubertal, exposure to low levels of androgens disrupts normal reproductive function throughout life from puberty to reproductive senescence.
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