SFEIES24 Poster Presentations Neuroendocrinology (30 abstracts)
Assessing biological stress markers in the hair of individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis using a novel method of extraction
Grace Fensome 1 , Livia Simmonds 1 , Stephen Wood 2,3 , Rowan Hardy 1 , Farhat Khanim 1 , Fozia Shaheen 4 , Angela Taylor 4 & Renate Reniers 5,6,7
1School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 2School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 3Orygen, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; 4Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 5Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 6Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 7Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Background: The hormone cortisol is both induced by and is a biomarker of stress. However, its long-term measurement in blood and urine is limited by feasibility of collection. Hair is a novel matrix to measure long-term steroid levels. We developed a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS) method to assess hair cortisol in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis as a biomarker of stress.
Method: Hair samples from 10 UHR individuals (3M/7F, mean age 23.0) and 12 age-matched controls (2M/10F) were analysed by LC/MS. 3cm-long hair samples from the proximal vertex region of the scalp were pulverised under liquid nitrogen. Steroid extraction was carried out using Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) and water, before evaporation under a nitrogen stream. Samples were reconstituted in 50:50 methanol and water and run by LC/MS (Waters Acquity with Xevo-XS) using a validated method. Absolute steroid levels and ratios were correlated with measures of self-reported stress.
Results: 15 steroids were isolated, including cortisol and cortisone. We observed a reduced relative standard deviation (RSD) in the cortisol/cortisone (f/e) ratio compared to cortisol alone (f/e RSD 11.35, IQR 25.42, cortisol RSD 17.44, IQR 45.06) and proceeded with f/e ratio as a measure of biological stress. We observed no difference in the hair f/e ratios of UHR individuals compared to control participants, nor did we observe correlations between severity of positive symptoms or self-reported stress levels and f/e ratio.
Conclusions: Whilst we successfully developed a novel method of steroid extraction from hair in individuals at UHR for psychosis, f/e ratios from this group did not significantly differ from healthy controls or correlate with self-reported stress. Further research is now needed to validate hair f/e ratio measurements as a biological stress marker in a larger high-stress population.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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