Measurement of cortisol in human hair as a biological marker of chronic stress

摘要

Background: Cortisol was considered as a "stress hormone" that gets released in order to show "fight or flight response" at stressful conditions. Hair , is an emerging biological specimen , in addition to non-invasive, easy to save , you can also back the case of long-term exposure scenario Moderate storing condition and explore specific duration of exposure make hair species getting notice in recent years. Stress hormone levels in hair became a novel biomarker to evaluate chronic stress. Aim:This study aimed to develop an analytical method by LC-MS/MS to quantify the concentration of cortisol, cortisone in hair, serum, urine and saliva. Structured questionnaire were used to evaluate stress level to investigate the correlation between concentrations of biomarkers and stress. Methods: There were 12 male and 19 female adult volunteers were recruited in this study. Serum, urine and saliva were collected once a month at the morning within three months. Hair samples were collected at the end of the third month. We developed analytical method by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to quantify the concentration of hair, serum, urine and saliva. Type A personality, consciously stress level, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQJ) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to evaluate the stress level of the study subjects. Pearson's correlation coefficients were applied to evaluate the correlation. Results: The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 1.47 and 4.47 (pg/mg), respectively. The detection rate which above limit of quantitation of cortisone levels in hair was 100.00%. Median of hair cortisol levels in our study population was 8.04 (pg/mg). We found that levels of cortisone in serum, urine, and saliva had significant correlation. We did not find significant correlation between levels of cortisol and cortisone in hair and stress-related outcomes. Conclusions: The cortisone in hair and stress-related biomarker have well correlation in our study population. IN future, cortisone could be used as the indicator of stress level.