Dynamics of adrenal steroidogenesis in childhood: steroid excretion in prepubertal and pubertal girls.

C19-C21O2-3 steroid spectrum and C21O5 corticoids have been studied in the urine collected from 29 girls aged 2-14 years. A total of 34 investigations was carried out by means of simultaneous two-column gas chromatography. The values of steroid excretion have been expressed in terms related to body weight and body surface, respectively. Before the age of seven the excretion of C19O2 steroids representing adrenal androgens and their metabolites did not exceed 7 micrograms/kg/day or 170 micrograms/m2/day ("infantile type androgen excretion"). Then it began to increase between the 7th and 9th years of life and preceded the appearance of the physical signs of adrenarche. The increase was accelerated during puberty and no value under 18 micrograms/kg/day, or 600 micrograms/m2/day, respectively, was found when the physical signs of adrenarche were present ("puberty type androgen excretion"). Excretion of 11-oxygenated C19 steroids, C21O5 corticoids and pregnenediol was also augmented during puberty; however, when compared with the increase in C19O2 excretion this augmentation was moderate. As a consequence of the marked elevation in C19O2 excretion, the ratio of C19O2 to C21O5, too, increased during puberty, indicating that the cortisol-androgen dissociation, otherwise characteristic of childhood, had ceased. It is concluded that the most plausible explanation of the increased androgen production is the gradual development of the zona reticularis during puberty.