TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-Term Stability of Cortisol Production and Metabolism Throughout Adolescence
T2 - Longitudinal Twin Study
AU - van Keulen, Britt J
AU - Dolan, Conor V
AU - Andrew, Ruth
AU - Walker, Brian R
AU - Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I
AU - Rotteveel, Joost
AU - Finken, Martijn J J
N1 - Funding Information: We thank our participants for making this study possible. We thank the staff of the Edinburgh Mass Spectrometry Core for specialist support. BRW is a Wellcome Trust Investigator. RA and BRW were supported by a British Heart Foundation Programme Grant and by a Wellcome Trust equipment grant. This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, 51.02.060, 668.772; NWO-MagW 480-04-004; NWO/SPI 56-464-14192). DIB acknowledges KNAW Academy Professor Award (PAH/6635). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - Life-course experiences have been postulated to program hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, suggesting that HPA axis activity is, at least partially, stable over time. Yet, there is paucity of data on the long-term stability of cortisol production and metabolism. We performed a prospective follow-up study in twins recruited from a nationwide register to estimate the stability of cortisol production and metabolism over time, and the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to this stability. In total, 218 healthy mono- and dizygotic twins were included. At the ages of 9, 12 and 17 years, morning urine samples were collected for assessment (by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) of cortisol metabolites, enabling the calculation of cortisol metabolite excretion rate and cortisol metabolism activity. Our results showed a low stability for both cortisol metabolite excretion rate (with correlations <.20) and cortisol metabolism activity indices (with correlations of .25 to .46 between 9 and 12 years, -.02 to .15 between 12 and 17 years and .09 to .28 between 9 and 17 years). Because of the low stability over time, genetic and environmental contributions to this stability were difficult to assess, although it seemed to be mostly determined by genetic factors. The low stability in both cortisol production and metabolism between ages 9 and 17 years reflects the dynamic nature of the HPA axis.
AB - Life-course experiences have been postulated to program hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, suggesting that HPA axis activity is, at least partially, stable over time. Yet, there is paucity of data on the long-term stability of cortisol production and metabolism. We performed a prospective follow-up study in twins recruited from a nationwide register to estimate the stability of cortisol production and metabolism over time, and the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to this stability. In total, 218 healthy mono- and dizygotic twins were included. At the ages of 9, 12 and 17 years, morning urine samples were collected for assessment (by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) of cortisol metabolites, enabling the calculation of cortisol metabolite excretion rate and cortisol metabolism activity. Our results showed a low stability for both cortisol metabolite excretion rate (with correlations <.20) and cortisol metabolism activity indices (with correlations of .25 to .46 between 9 and 12 years, -.02 to .15 between 12 and 17 years and .09 to .28 between 9 and 17 years). Because of the low stability over time, genetic and environmental contributions to this stability were difficult to assess, although it seemed to be mostly determined by genetic factors. The low stability in both cortisol production and metabolism between ages 9 and 17 years reflects the dynamic nature of the HPA axis.
KW - glucocorticoid
KW - metabolites
KW - stability
KW - steroid
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2020.6
DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2020.6
M3 - Article
C2 - 32209144
SN - 1832-4274
VL - 23
SP - 33
EP - 38
JO - Twin research and human genetics
JF - Twin research and human genetics
IS - 1
ER -