Prepubertal and Pubertal Endocrinology

A network of interrelating hormones links the activity of the neuroendocrine system with cellular operations both in controlling relatively unchanging processes, which are little affected by the aging process, and in entraining processes that subserve changes and occur at specific times of life such as the development of puberty.

Abstract

The processes of growth and development imply increases in cell size and number with all the accompanying requirements for protein and nucleic acid synthesis. For orderly growth, the availability of appropriate nutrients as the building blocks of macromolecular synthesis is fundamental. It has become clear over recent years that there is also a requirement for a network of supervising processes to control many or all of these metabolic steps. Most of the supervisory processes are controlled by the endocrine system. This network of interrelating hormones links the activity of the neuroendocrine system with cellular operations both in controlling relatively unchanging processes, which are little affected by the aging process, and in entraining processes that subserve changes and occur at specific times of life such as the development of puberty.