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Hair cortisol may be reliable measure of long-term cortisol exposure
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13th European Congress of Endocrinology
Measuring cortisol concentrations found in hair may be a new method to indicate a person’s cortisol exposure, researchers report.
“We have suspected for a while that cortisol may be implicated in the development of many common conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and depression,” Laura Manenschijn, MD, of Erasmus MC in the Netherlands, said in a press release. She presented the study results at the 13th European Congress of Endocrinology. “However, until now, doctors have not been able to accurately measure cortisol exposure over the long term … so research into this area has been limited.”
To investigate whether external factors affect cortisol measurements taken from hair, Manenschijn and colleagues obtained hair samples from 195 healthy people, 11 patients with Cushing’s syndrome and three patients with Addison’s disease. They determined cortisol levels using a salivary ELISA kit, collected information on hair features via questionnaire and measured waist and hip circumferences of 46 healthy participants.
The researchers found a positive correlation with hair cortisol levels and waist-to-hip ratio (P=.003) and waist circumference (P=.007); people with higher cortisol exposure had higher abdominal obesity.
Patients with Cushing’s syndrome had significantly higher levels of cortisol in the hair compared with healthy participants (P<.0001). When the researchers examined the long hair of patients with Cushing’s syndrome and Addison’s disease, they found that cortisol levels varied over time and corresponded with the clinical course of the condition. The long hair of healthy participants showed alterations in levels of cortisol exposure related to psychological stress over time.
Hair cortisol levels were not influenced by sex, hair color, frequency of hair wash and hair products; however, the researchers noted a borderline significant decrease in cortisol levels of hair that was dyed or bleached (P=.08).
“This technique could lead to many potential uses in clinical research and has the additional benefit that it is easy to use and noninvasive,” Manenschijn said. “Now, we would like to use this tool in larger studies to examine the role of cortisol in the development of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and depression.”
For more information:
- Manenschijn L. Poster 351. Presented at: 13th European Congress of Endocrinology; April 30-May 4, 2011; Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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