salivary dhea

Adrenal function links to early postnatal growth and blood pressure at age 6 in children born extremely preterm.

February 5, 2019 by IISBR

Background: Low birth weight in term-born individuals correlates with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes; excess glucocorticoid exposure has been linked to these relationships. We hypothesized that cortisol and adrenal androgens would correlate inversely with birthweight and directly with markers of cardiometabolic risk in school-aged children born extremely preterm; further, preterm-born would have increased cortisol and adrenal androgens compared to term-born children.

Methods: Saliva samples were obtained at age 6 from 219 preterm-born children followed since birth and 40 term-born children and analyzed for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol. Cortisol was also measured at home (awakening, 30′ later, evening).

Results: For preterm-born children, cortisol and DHEA correlated inversely with weight and length Z-scores at 36 weeks PMA and positively with systolic BP. DHEA was higher in preterm-born than term-born children (boys p < 0.01; girls p = 0.04). Cortisol was similar between preterm-born and term-born at study visit; however, preterm-born children showed a blunted morning cortisol. In term-born children, DHEA correlated with BMI (p = 0.04), subscapular, and abdominal skinfold thicknesses (both p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Cortisol and DHEA correlated inversely with early postnatal growth and directly with systolic BP in extremely preterm-born children, suggesting perinatal programming. Blunted morning cortisol may reflect NICU stress, as seen after other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

View Abstract

Stress physiology and memory for emotional information: Moderation by individual differences in pubertal hormones.

October 24, 2018 by IISBR

Background:
In contrast to a large body of work concerning the effects of physiological stress reactivity on children’s socioemotional functioning, far less attention has been devoted to understanding the effects of such reactivity on cognitive, including mnemonic, functioning. How well children learn and remember information under stress has implications for a range of educational, clinical, and legal outcomes. We evaluated 8-14 year olds’ (N = 94, 50 female) memory for negative, neutral, and positive images. Youth had seen the images a week previously as a part of a laboratory stress task. At encoding and retrieval, and in between, youth provided saliva samples that were later assayed for cortisol, salivary α amylase (sAA), testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Overall, higher cortisol reactivity to the lab task predicted enhanced memory for emotional but not neutral images. However, cortisol further interacted with pubertal hormones (testosterone and DHEA) to predict memory. Among girls with lower pubertal hormone levels, greater cortisol reactivity was associated with enhanced memory for negative information, whereas among boys with higher pubertal hormone levels, cortisol reactivity was associated with enhanced memory for positive information. sAA, was unrelated to memory. Overall, our findings reveal that individual differences in hormone levels associated with pubertal development have implications for our understanding of how stress-responsive biological systems directly and interactively influence cognitive outcomes.

View Abstract

The “yin and yang” of the adrenal and gonadal systems in elite military men.

June 27, 2017 by IISBR

Background:

We recently established daily, free-living profiles of the adrenal hormone cortisol, the (primarily adrenal) anabolic precursor dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and the (primarily gonadal) anabolic hormone testosterone in elite military men. A prevailing view is that adrenal and gonadal systems reciprocally modulate each other; however, recent paradigm shifts prompted the characterization of these systems as parallel, cooperative processes (i.e. the “positive coupling” hypothesis). In this study, we tested the positive coupling hypothesis in 57 elite military men by evaluating associations between adrenal and gonadal biomarkers across the day. Salivary DHEA was moderately and positively coupled with salivary cortisol, as was salivary testosterone. Anabolic processes (i.e. salivary DHEA and testosterone) were also positively and reliably coupled across the day. In multivariate models, salivary DHEA and cortisol combined to account for substantial variance in salivary testosterone concentrations across the day, but this was driven almost exclusively by DHEA. This may reflect choreographed adrenal release of DHEA with testicular and/or adrenal release of testosterone, systemic conversion of DHEA to testosterone, or both. DHEA and testosterone modestly and less robustly predicted cortisol concentrations; this was confined to the morning, and testosterone was the primary predictor. Altogether, top-down co-activation of adrenal and gonadal hormone secretion may complement bottom-up counter-regulatory functions to foster anabolic balance and neuronal survival; hence, the “yin and yang” of adrenal and gonadal systems. This may be an adaptive process that is amplified by stress, competition, and/or dominance hierarchy.

View Abstract