Elevated Serum BMP1 in Pubertal Female Rats and Girls with Central Precocious Puberty: A Potential Biomarker for Longitudinal Growth

Objectives To elucidate the expression dynamics of serum BMP1 during pubertal development and in central precocious puberty (CPP), and to evaluate its correlation with puberty-related clinical indicators and diagnostic potential for CPP. Animals and Patients Female SD rats at different developmental stages and rats with CPP models. 75 girls with CPP and 55 age-matched prepubertal control girls. Measurements Serum BMP1 levels were determined by ELISA. Spearman correlation and multivariate linear regression analyses were used to evaluate associations between BMP1 and puberty-related parameters. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of BMP1 for CPP. Results Serum BMP1 levels in normal female SD rats peaked during the neonatal period and early adolescence, then decreased significantly upon sexual maturity and adulthood. Markedly elevated serum BMP1 levels were observed in both CPP model rats and Tanner stage 2 girls with CPP compared to age-matched controls ( p < 0.01). Serum BMP1 correlated positively with E2 and negatively with bone age and BA/CA ratio (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified no independent determinants of serum BMP1 (all p > 0.05). For CPP diagnosis, BMP1 alone achieved an AUC of 0.692 with 76.0% sensitivity and 61.82% specificity, while the BMP1/IGF-1 combination showed superior performance (AUC=0.832, sensitivity 84.78%, specificity 72.73%). Conclusions Serum BMP1 demonstrates potential as a biomarker for pubertal growth but lacks sufficient diagnostic accuracy for CPP when used alone. Its combination with IGF-1 significantly improves diagnostic performance.