Human Reproduction, Vol. 16, No. 5, 1020-1026,
May 2001
© 2001 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Sexual precocity after immigration from developing countries to Belgium: evidence of previous exposure to organochlorine pesticides
1 Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and 2 Laboratory of Toxicology, University of Liège, C.H.U. Sart Tilman, Liège, Belgium and Departments of Pediatrics, 3 Universities of Ghent, 4 Antwerp, 5 Brussels and 6 Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Belgian Study Group for Pediatric Endocrinology
In a retrospective auxological study of 145 patients seen in Belgium during a 9-year period for treatment of precocious puberty, 28% appeared to be foreign children (39 girls, one boy) who immigrated 4 to 5 years earlier from 22 developing countries, without any link to a particular ethnic or country background. The patients were either adopted (n = 28) or non-adopted (n = 12), the latter having normal weight and height at immigration and starting early puberty without evidence of earlier deprivation. This led to the hypothesis that the mechanism of precocious puberty might involve previous exposure to oestrogenic endocrine disrupters. A toxicological plasma screening for eight pesticides detected p,p'-DDE, which is derived from the organochlorine pesticide DDT. Median p,p'-DDE concentrations were respectively 1.20 and 1.04 ng/ml in foreign adopted (n = 15) and non-adopted (n = 11) girls with precocious puberty, while 13 out of 15 Belgian native girls with idiopathic or organic precocious puberty showed undetectable concentrations (<0.1 ng/ml). A possible relationship between transient exposure to endocrine disrupters and sexual precocity is suggested, and deserves further studies in immigrant children with non-advanced puberty.
Key words: adopted children/organochlorine pesticides/p,p'-DDE/precocious puberty
7 Present address: Pediatric Clinic, Medical Faculty, 91000 Skopje, Macedonia
8 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Liège, C.H.U. Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liege, Belgium. E-mail: jpbourguignon{at}ulg.ac.be
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