Stress-linked cortisol concentrations in hair: what we know and what we need to know
-
Christopher F. Sharpley
,
James R. McFarlane
Abstract
Cortisol has major impacts upon a range of physiological homeostatic mechanisms and plays an important role in stress, anxiety and depression. Although traditionally described as being solely synthesised via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, recent animal and human studies indicate that cortisol may also be synthesised via a functionally-equivalent ‘peripheral’ HPA-like process within the skin, principally within hair follicles, melanocytes, epidermal melanocytes and dermal fibroblasts. Current data indicate that basal levels of cortisol within hair vary across body regions, show diurnal variation effects, respond to the onset and cessation of environmental stressors, and may demonstrate some degree of localisation in those responses. There are conflicting data regarding the presence of variability in cortisol concentrations across the length of the hair shaft, thus challenging the suggestion that hair cortisol may be used as a historical biomarker of stress and questioning the primary origin of cortisol in hair. The need to comprehensively ‘map’ the hair cortisol response for age, gender, diurnal rhythm and responsivity to stressor type is discussed, plus the major issue of if, and how, the peripheral and central HPA systems communicate.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- GSK3: a key target for the development of novel treatments for type 2 diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer disease
- Mitochondrial and metabolic-based protective strategies in Huntington’s disease: the case of creatine and coenzyme Q
- At a PI3K crossroads: lessons from flies and rodents
- Theta phase precession beyond the hippocampus
- The role of Ca2+-stimulated adenylyl cyclases in bidirectional synaptic plasticity and brain function
- Endoplasmic reticulum stress and prion diseases
- Head models and dynamic causal modeling of subcortical activity using magnetoencephalographic/electroencephalographic data
- The role of glutamatergic inputs onto parvalbumin-positive interneurons: relevance for schizophrenia
- Stress-linked cortisol concentrations in hair: what we know and what we need to know
- Prelims
- Prelims
Artikel in diesem Heft
- GSK3: a key target for the development of novel treatments for type 2 diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer disease
- Mitochondrial and metabolic-based protective strategies in Huntington’s disease: the case of creatine and coenzyme Q
- At a PI3K crossroads: lessons from flies and rodents
- Theta phase precession beyond the hippocampus
- The role of Ca2+-stimulated adenylyl cyclases in bidirectional synaptic plasticity and brain function
- Endoplasmic reticulum stress and prion diseases
- Head models and dynamic causal modeling of subcortical activity using magnetoencephalographic/electroencephalographic data
- The role of glutamatergic inputs onto parvalbumin-positive interneurons: relevance for schizophrenia
- Stress-linked cortisol concentrations in hair: what we know and what we need to know
- Prelims
- Prelims
