Estrogen receptor α gene analysis in girls with central precocious puberty.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Estrogen is the final key factor that triggers the onset of puberty. The raised sensitivity of estrogen receptor, which may be caused by an estrogen receptor α (ERα) gene mutation or polymorphism, has been implicated in the etiology of precocious puberty. The aim of this study is to identify ERα gene mutations or polymorphisms in girls with central precocious puberty (CPP).

METHODS: A total of 204 Korean girls with CPP were included in this study along with 102 healthy Korean female adults as controls. All coding exons and exon-intron boundaries of the ERα gene were sequenced. The relationship between identified sequence variations and CPP were evaluated via comparison of allele frequencies between the two groups.

RESULTS: Eight polymorphisms were identified in the ERα gene. Among the eight polymorphisms in this study, five have been previously reported, whereas the other three were novel polymorphisms. Two of the three novel polymorphisms, p.G145S in exon 1 and p.R555H in exon 8 were only identified in the patient group. The subgroup with p.G145S showed a significantly higher level of peak luteinizing hormone than the subgroup without p.G145S in girls with CPP.

CONCLUSION: The scanning and typing of ERα polymorphism has uncovered several potentially meaningful polymorphisms. However, no solid conclusion can be made from this study and further studies are necessary to validate the function of these polymorphisms.