Journal of Andrology
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Published-Ahead-of-Print September 6, 2006, DOI:10.2164/jandrol.106.000190

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Urinary prostate-specific antigen is a non-invasive indicator of sexual development and male children

Itaru Sato *, Atsuko Yoshikawa , Keiko Shimizu , Atsuya Ishiwari , Toshiji Mukai , and Teruaki Iwamoto

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: itaru-s{at}m2.ocv.ne.jp.

ABSTRACT Testicular androgen induces the synthesis of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in acinar epithelial cells of the prostate. We examined PSA activity in urine from 136 male children from birth up to 17 years of age. We detected PSA at various intervals in early infant urine over a period of 1~4 months. During this period, urinary secretion of testosterone (T) gradually declined, accompanied by one or more surges of T prior to a transient increase in PSA in urine from full- and pre-term infants (67%, n=6). Although mean urinary T concentrations during elevations of PSA in pre-term infants were 3.1 and 5.6 times greater than in full-term infants and adults, the overall mean urinary PSA concentration of full and pre-term infants was just 45% and 18% that of adults, respectively. PSA was not detected in children aged 0.3 to 9 years, after which a gradual increase in urinary PSA activity was observed after 10 years of age. Urinary PSA activity was markedly persistent after Tanner stage III pubertal development. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate an induction of PSA during early infancy by bioactive testosterone in normally developing human males. We conclude that urinary PSA is a non-invasive, useful indicator for developmental studies from neonatal and to adolescent males, which can be measured with a confirmatory semi-quantitative PSA assay.


Key words: Androgen • Hormone • Prostate • Puberty • Semen • Infant • Puberty




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I. Sato, A. Yoshikawa, A. Ishiwari, and K. Shimizu
Seasonal Changes in Urinary Prostate-Specific Antigenic Activity in Male Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscaa fuscata)
J Androl, November 1, 2007; 28(6): 821 - 826.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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