Insulin-Like Factor 3 Levels in Cord Blood and Serum from Children: Effects of Age, Postnatal Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis Activation, and Cryptorchidism

Abstract

In boys, early postnatal INSL3 is markedly higher as compared with later childhood, presumably because it is stimulated by the transient postnatal LH peak. INSL3 was unmeasurable in girls at all ages. Reduced cord blood INSL3 and an increased LH to INSL3 ratio at 3 months of age in persistently cryptorchid boys suggest impaired Leydig cell function in cryptorchid boys already in the perinatal period.