Prenatal Testosterone and Risk for Disordered Eating During Puberty

描述（由申请人提供）：饮食失调是严重影响女孩的心理健康问题。这些疾病导致的大量精神和医学发病率证明了其公共卫生意义，以及了解其病因的必要性。研究表明，产前睾丸激素可能会使男性化（即，较低）的风险饮食失调（DE），并解释性别差异的患病率，但如何或何时出现这些影响仍然未知。产前睾酮升高会降低动物青春期期间和青春期后对卵巢激素的敏感性。重要的是，卵巢激素与青春期后几种类型的DE相关，因此，睾酮对DE影响的一个潜在机制可能是降低青春期对卵巢激素的敏感性。异性双胞胎为检验这一假设提供了一种新的人类设计，因为异性女性双胞胎在子宫内与男性双胞胎一起发育，并且被认为在产前暴露于更高水平的睾酮。这种双胞胎设计将用于：1）检查产前睾酮对DE的男性化影响是否在青春期出现; 2）确认这些发现不是由于青春期期间发生变化的其他因素的混杂影响（例如，肥胖、情绪、自主性困难）或与兄弟一起抚养。参与者（年龄10-15岁）将包括同性男性（N= 270）和女性（N = 350）双胞胎的档案样本以及以下新样本：1）异性双胞胎（N = 120）;和2）与兄弟一起抚养的非双胞胎女性（N = 60）。为青少年设计的自我报告问卷将用于评估DE、青春期状态、自主困难和情绪。将使用生物电阻抗和体重指数评估肥胖。将使用分层线性模型检查双胞胎类型（异性或同性）和青春期状态（青春期前、青春期早期、青春期中后期）的DE差异。预计异性和同性双胞胎在青春期前的DE水平不会有显著差异，无论双胞胎性别如何。然而，DE水平和双胞胎类型之间的线性关系预计将出现在青春期早期和之后，当同性男性双胞胎预计将显示最男性化（即，DE水平最低），其次是异性男性双胞胎，异性女性双胞胎和同性女性双胞胎。此外，这些影响不会被异性和同性双胞胎之间的肥胖、情绪或自主困难的差异所解释。最后，异性雌性的DE男性化不会是因为与兄弟一起长大，因为这些双胞胎的DE水平低于与兄弟一起长大的非双胞胎雌性。公共卫生相关性：研究结果可能需要新的生物学范式来理解DE的出现和饮食失调风险的性别差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Eating disorders are significant mental health problems that disproportionally affect girls. The substantial psychiatric and medical morbidity resulting from these disorders attest to their public health significance and the need to understand their etiology. Research suggests that prenatal testosterone may masculinize (i.e., lower) risk for disordered eating (DE) and account for sex differences in prevalence, yet how or when these effects emerge remains unknown. Elevated prenatal testosterone decreases sensitivity to ovarian hormones during and after puberty in animals. Importantly, ovarian hormones are associated with several types of DE after puberty, thus, one potential mechanism for testosterone's effects on DE may be to decrease sensitivity to ovarian hormones during puberty. Opposite-sex twin pairs provide a novel human design for examining this hypothesis, as opposite-sex female twins develop in utero with a male co-twin and are believed to be exposed to higher levels of testosterone prenatally. This twin design will be used to: 1) examine whether the masculinizing effects of prenatal testosterone on DE emerge during puberty; 2) confirm that these findings are not due to the confounding effects of other factors that change during puberty (e.g., adiposity, mood, autonomy difficulties) or to being reared with a brother. Participants (ages 10-15) will include an archival sample of same-sex male (N= 270) and female (N = 350) twins and new samples of: 1) opposite-sex twins (N = 120); and 2) non-twin females reared with brothers (N = 60). Self-report questionnaires designed for young adolescents will be used to assess DE, pubertal status, autonomy difficulties, and mood. Adiposity will be assessed with bioelectrical impedance and body mass index. Hierarchal Linear Models will be used to examine differences in DE by twin type (opposite-or same-sex) and puberty status (pre-pubertal, early puberty, mid-to-late puberty). It is expected that opposite-sex and same-sex twins will not differ significantly on levels of DE during pre-puberty, regardless of twin sex. However, linear relationships between levels of DE and twin type are expected to emerge during and after early puberty, when same-sex male twins are expected to show the most masculinized (i.e., lowest) levels of DE, followed by opposite-sex male twins, opposite-sex female twins, and same-sex female twins. Moreover, these effects will not be accounted for by differences in adiposity, mood, or autonomy difficulties between opposite-sex and same-sex twins. Finally, masculinization of DE in opposite-sex females will not be due to being raised with a brother, as these twins will have lower levels of DE than non-twin females reared with brother. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Findings could necessitate new biological paradigms for understanding the emergence of DE and sex differences in eating disorder risk.