Dr.
Boepple is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
at Harvard Medical School and a member of both the
Pediatric and Reproductive Endocrine Units
at the Massachusetts General Hospital
His research interests focus on neuroendocrine maturation of human puberty and the modulation of childhood and adolescent growth through the interactions between the reproductive and growth hormone axes.
His clinical investigations have employed models of human puberty, including children with sexual precocity, adolescents with delayed puberty, and adults with deficiencies of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).
With NIH grant support, Dr. Boepple has utilized GnRH agonists to induce long-term suppression of the pituitary-gonadal axis in children with precocious puberty, thus permitting investigation of the physiology of skeletal growth, maturation, and mineral accretion, sex steroid modulation of growth hormone secretion, changes in body composition during childhood and adolescence, and the discrete impact of adrenal sex steroid secretion during sexual development.
Dr. Boepple also coordinates clinical research performed within the NIH-funded National Center for Infertility Research in which the induction of puberty and subsequent restoration of a normal adult reproductive axis is achieved by the pulsatile administration of GnRH in patients with GnRH deficiency. This unique clinical model provides additional opportunities to investigate the physiologic regulation of reproduction in the human, with particular focus on the complex process of sexual maturation.
While physiologic studies have been Dr. Boepple's predominant focus to date, his research interests have expanded to include the molecular basis for disorders of pubertal development, including gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty and GnRH deficiency.
Selected Publications:
• Boepple PA, Mansfield MJ, Link K, Crawford JD, Crigler JF Jr, Kushner DC, Blizzard RM, Crowley WF Jr. Impact of sex steroids and their suppression upon skeletal growth and maturation. Am J Physiol l988; 255:E559-66.
• Jay N, Mansfield MJ, Crawford JD, Crigler JD Jr. Blizzard RM, Crowley WF Jr. Schoenfeld, Cole FX, Rhubin L, Boepple PA. Ovulation and menstrual function of adolescent girls with central precocious puberty following therapy with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992; 75:890-894.
• Boepple PA, Frisch LS, Wierman WE, Hoffman WH, Crowley WF, Jr. The natural history of autonomous gonadal function, adrenarche and central puberty in gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992; 75:1550-1555.
• Pralong FP, Pavlou SN, Waldstreicher J, Crowley WF, Jr., Boepple PA. Defective regulation of glycoprotein free alpha subunit in males with isolated GnRH deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1995; 80.