Segmented Hair Cortisol Analysis By Online Solid Phase Extraction Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is the primary neurocrine axis that regulates response of the stress. Activation of this axis leads to releasing glucocorticoid (cortisol) that regulates physiological events and inhibits further HPA axis activation. Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis plays an important role in a number of endocrine and psychiatric disorders, such as adrenal insufficiency, (ectopic) Cushing syndrome, major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, or schizophrenia. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) belongs to relatively new methods of estimating cumulative cortisol exposure over months. While plasma, saliva, and urine cortisol levels provide immediate values in the organism, hair matrix allows for chronic exposure evaluation and longitudinal monitoring. Large inter- and intraindividual variability of the hair sampling and determination could be overcome by a segmentation approach – cutting the hair strand into smaller segments and analyzing them independently. Online (on-column) solid phase extraction liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (SPE LC MS) using a surrogate analyte has been performed to quantify HCC in various segmented hair samples. Based on the hair length, it was possible to obtain a relatively high number (3–6) of segments possibly containing highly correlated HCC values. Probabilistic multilevel (hierarchical) models were applied to volunteers’ hair for establishing a parameter of decrease, which could then be used to correct for such a decrease in the hair of the studied population. Consequently, the deviations from the corrections could then be attributed to the effect of fluctuation or variability of HCC in a certain time point (segment), e.g. episode, intervention, etc. |
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