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Endocrine Abstracts (2021) 77 OC4.4 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.77.OC4.4

1Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; 2Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 3University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; 4Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; 5Evangelismos General Hospital, Athens, Greece


Adrenal hormones possess both circadian and ultradian rhythms, making interpretation of single time point measurements difficult, particularly in the context of suspected endocrine disease. Attempting to capture either normal or pathological rhythms in detail by traditional measurement of blood is impractical and generally unfeasible. However, minimally invasive microdialysis sampling of free tissue hormones coupled with a portable fraction collector (U-RHYTHM), and a targeted LC-MS metabolomics approach offers the ability to sample at high resolution without blood and in ambulatory settings. Using these methods, we examined the dynamics of tissue free adrenal steroids in healthy volunteers as part of the ULTRADIAN multi-centre clinical trial (ultradian.eu). Inter-individual variability of subcutaneous free adrenal steroid rhythms was characterised by U-RHYTHM collection of 24-hour hormone profiles inn = 223 participants (age 18-68, males=100) in ambulatory free-living conditions. In a separate cohort, simultaneous plasma samples were collected and hormone rhythms in blood and tissue were compared (n = 7). Finally, intra-individual variability was examined inn = 24 healthy volunteers who completed outpatient U-RHYTHM hormone profiles on multiple occasions. During analysis, we used mathematical techniques including conventional metrics (range, area under the curve, etc.), non-stationary statistics and time series analyses to create novel dynamic biomarkers of normality. Consequently, we have been able to characterise for the first time the healthy range, dynamic features, and plasma correlations that define normal variation of adrenal hormones in subcutaneous tissue. Key hormones identified include cortisol, cortisone, corticosterone, aldosterone and 18-hydroxycortisol. Results have been stratified in several ways including by age, sex, and BMI. This knowledge is a step towards a deeper understanding of the dynamic physiology of adrenal steroids in healthy people, and furthermore provides normative reference data that will enable the possibility of comparison with disease conditions.

Volume 77

Society for Endocrinology BES 2021

Edinburgh, United Kingdom
08 Nov 2021 - 10 Nov 2021

Society for Endocrinology 

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