Physiological Role of kisspeptin in Puberty
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the physiological hormonal response to kisspeptin at different stages of puberty.
IRAS ID
227979
Contact name
Waljit S. Dhillo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint Research Compliance Office, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Puberty is the stage when a boy or girl becomes sexually mature in preparation for adulthood. It is a process that starts between the ages of 8 to 13 years in girls and 9 to 14 years in boys. The part of the brain that regulates the onset of puberty is called the ‘hypothalamus’. Some children do not enter puberty by the same age as most children (14yrs for boys) and this is termed ‘delayed puberty’. Most commonly, these children have a normal hypothalamus and will enter puberty spontaneously with time (constitutional delay of growth and puberty; CDGP). However, a small subset of these patients have a genetic disorder causing the hypothalamus to not function normally. These children will not enter puberty without treatment (congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism; CHH). Currently, doctors do not have a good method for differentiating these two groups of patients who require different treatments.
Over the last 15 years, a naturally occurring hormone called ‘kisspeptin’ has been shown to play a critical role in regulating the normal onset of puberty. Kisspeptin acts at the hypothalamus to stimulate the production of sex hormones (e.g. luteinising hormone; LH and follicles stimulating hormone; FSH).
Kisspeptin is being developed as a novel test of hypothalamic function to differentiate people with normal hypothalamic function from those with abnormal hypothalamic function. Kisspeptin has been given to more than 300 adults with no known side effects reported in the literature to date (Jayasena JCI 2014; Dhillo JCEM 2005). Recently, kisspeptin has been administered to a small number of children in the USA to investigate hypothalamic function with no reported side effects (Chan ENDO 2017). We plan to investigate the physiological sex hormone response to kisspeptin in children at different stages of puberty. This will provide valuable information in managing disorders of puberty in the future.REC name
London - West London & GTAC Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1736
Date of REC Opinion
30 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion