Open AccessHair cortisol concentration differs across site and person: localization and consistency of responses to a brief pain stressor
Author(s) -
Christopher F. Sharpley,
Kate Kauter,
James R. McFarlane
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
physiological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.647
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1802-9973
pISSN - 0862-8408
DOI - 10.33549/physiolres.931874
Subject(s) - stressor , forearm , medicine , endocrinology , physiology , psychology , clinical psychology , anatomy
Although in vitro studies have shown that cortisol concentrationsin human and animal hair respond to environmental stressors,few data have been reported regarding the in vivo variability ofhair cortisol to brief pain stressors. As an extension of a previousstudy, hair was collected and assayed for cortisol concentrationsfrom each of three sites (elbow, mid-forearm, wrist) before andafter participants immersed their hand in ice water for 1 min.Results showed that the “localization” boundary of hair cortisolresponses previously reported was able to be reduced to only250 mm between sites. Furthermore, all participants showedconsiderable variability in hair cortisol across the three sites ateach collection period, although consistency across participants inoverall responsivity of hair cortisol to the pain stressor wasobserved.