Effects of Nutrition and Growth-Related Hormones on Pubertal Development

Somatic growth and sexual maturation are two components of development that are bound to be closely related. There are of course important species differences. Since obviously growth hormone (GH) and growth factors are essential for somatic growth, it can be predicted that growth-promoting peptides could participate, at least indirectly, in the regulation of sexual maturation, and this has been a matter of debate for a long time. Furthermore, since growth is intimately related to food intake, then metabolic factors related to nutrition are likely to directly or indirectly affect the process of sexual maturation. In this chapter, several aspects of the relationship between growth and sexual maturation will be discussed.