Analysis of Cortisol in Hair – Biomarker of HPA Axis Activation

January 2018

Katarína Kostolanská, Ondřej Peš, Eva Táborská, Lucie Novotná

cortisol HPA axis steroid compounds hair cortisol levels 13C3-cortisol SPE LC-MS

TLDR Hair cortisol levels can effectively indicate long-term hormone activity.

The study analyzed cortisol levels in hair as a biomarker for long-term activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, using a method involving online SPE LC-MS with 13C3-cortisol. Hair samples from 114 healthy volunteers were segmented and analyzed, resulting in 310 cortisol measurements. The median hair cortisol level was 4.76 pg/mg. This method provided a simple, high-throughput approach for assessing long-term hormone secretion and could be expanded to analyze other steroid compounds in hair.

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