Endogenous Steroid Hormones in Hair: Investigations on Different Hair Types, Pigmentation Effects, and Correlation to Nails

December 2019 in “ Steroids ”

Clarissa D. Voegel, M Hofmann, Thomas Kræmer, Markus R. Baumgartner, Tina M. Binz

endogenous steroid hormones cortisone testosterone LC-MS/MS scalp hair body hair hair pigmentation

Studysummary In this study, researchers developed a method to measure steroid hormones in hair and found that body hair typically contains higher levels of cortisone and testosterone compared to scalp hair, but hair pigmentation did not affect hormone concentrations significantly.

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The study developed and validated an LC-MS/MS method for quantifying seven steroid hormones in hair, revealing that cortisone and testosterone concentrations were higher in body hair than scalp hair. Pigmentation did not significantly affect steroid concentrations, and no correlation was found between steroid levels in hair and nails. The study concluded that body hair is not a suitable alternative to scalp hair for steroid analysis due to weak correlations and varying growth rates. The research involved 38 subjects and highlighted the need for matrix-dependent value ranges for interpreting hair and nail steroid levels.

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