Glucocorticoids in hair in relation to cardiometabolic risk markers

• Main Authors: Tobias Stalder, Clemens Kirschbaum, Robert Miller, Joachim Fischer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2012-09-01
• Series: European Journal of Psychotraumatology
• Subjects: hair; cardiometabolic syndrome; glucocorticoid; stress; cortisol; cortisone

Altered long-term secretion of glucocorticoid hormones is believed to play a pivotal role in linking chronic stress to cardiometabolic risk. Despite experimental data supporting this link, previous epidemiological field studies have often yielded inconsistent results. Amongst other things, this is likely to be related to methodological limitations in the assessment of glucocorticoid secretion over prolonged periods of time. The measurement of glucocorticoids in hair may constitute a major advancement here, enabling the assessment of cumulative hormone levels over periods of up to six months. Here we will present first data from a large industry-funded cohort study investigating links between work-related stress, long-term glucocorticoid secretion and cardiometabolic risk factors.Hair samples were obtained from 1315 employees of the airline manufacturing industry and assayed for cortisol (F) and cortisone (E) concentrations using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection (LC-MS/MS). In addition, relevant anthropometric, psychosocial and physiological biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk were assessed.Results reveal positive associations of hair F and E concentrations with measures of central obesity (body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio), resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as fasting morning blood levels of glucose, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein and high-density lipoprotein (negative). Significant positive associations with low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride levels were only seen for hair E but not for hair F.These findings are in line with current conceptions suggesting an important role of aberrant glucocorticoid secretion in the development of cardiometabolic risk. Implications of these data for hair analysis as an important future tool in epidemiological field research will be discussed.