Introduction: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a prevalent endocrine disorder. Research has indicated that pubertal development is linked to nutritional metabolism. Irisin, a novel myokine/adipokine, has been identified as a potential predictor of CPP in girls. This study aims to examine the relationship between serum irisin levels and CPP in boys.
Material and methods: An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure serum irisin levels in 32 boys diagnosed with CPP and 33 prepubertal age-matched boys as normal controls (NC). To assess the impact of body mass index (BMI) on irisin levels, both the CPP and NC groups were divided into overweight/obese and normal-weight subgroups. Spearman correlation analysis was employed to assess the connection between irisin and clinical and biochemical parameters. Additionally, a receiver operating characteristic curve was utilised to determine the optimal threshold value for irisin.
Results: In the normal-weight subgroups, boys with CPP exhibited elevated irisin levels compared to controls, but not in the overweight/obese subgroups. The optimal cut-off value for irisin levels to predict CPP in the normal-weight groups was 93.09 ng/mL, yielding a sensitivity of 47.6% and a specificity of 100%. Furthermore, a positive correlation was noted between irisin levels and bone age (BA), bone age advancement (BA-CA), and BMI.
Conclusions: Serum irisin levels correlate with BMI and pubertal development. Given its limited sensitivity, irisin level can only be utilised as a supplementary rather than a standalone diagnostic indicator for CPP.
Keywords: BMI; boys; central precocious puberty; irisin.