Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: For diagnostic purposes, total-testosterone levels are generally assessed in plasma. However, as the primary site of action of testosterone is in tissue, evaluation of the distribution of testosterone in tissue fluids could give enhanced insight into the (patho)physiological state. Clinical microdialysis allows for sampling at tissue level based on diffusion.Objective: To compare the increase in testosterone levels in tissue and plasma afte...

Introduction: Corticosteroids are amongst the most prescribed drugs and their use has been linked to cardiometabolic adverse events including weight gain and abdominal adiposity. We previously showed that users were also more likely to have the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Since an essential role in the pathway of glucocorticoid (GC) action is reserved for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), it could be proposed that GC sensitivity altering polymorphisms could affect the vulnerabi...

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity is still increasing and is accompanied by significant health problems. High exposure to glucocorticoids, including the stress hormone cortisol, has been suggested to play a role in the development of obesity and associated cardiometabolic derangements. We previously showed that obese persons are exposed to high long-term cortisol levels as measured in scalp hair. It is not known whether these elevated cortisol levels decrease with weight...

Background: Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is caused by overproduction of cortisol. Current first-line screening tests for CS can produce false positive results due to medication use and stress, rely heavily on patient adherence to sampling instructions, and only measure short-term cortisol exposure which limits sensitivity. In general multiple tests are required to establish a diagnosis. Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) offer a minimally invasive way to measure lon...

IntroductionRecently, cross-sectional studies report associations between long-term glucocorticoid levels in scalp hair (HairGC) and obesity. However, there is a wide variation in studied outcomes and associations, possibly caused by differences in population characteristics, e.g. age, sex, dispersion of adiposity, and used laboratory methods. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the relation between HairGC and anthropom...