Sex differences in cortisol response to corticotropin releasing hormone challenge over puberty: Pittsburgh Pediatric Neurobehavioral Studies

PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

卷:36

Article

Stroud, Laura R.^1,2,3  Papandonatos, George D.⁴  Williamson, Douglas E.^5,6  Dahl, Ronald E.⁷ 

[1] Brown Alpert Med Sch, Dept Psychiat & Human Behav, Ctr Behav Med, Providence, RI 02903 USA

[2] Brown Alpert Med Sch, Dept Psychiat & Human Behav, Ctr Prevent Med, Providence, RI 02903 USA

[3] Miriam Hosp, Providence, RI 02903 USA

[4] Brown Univ, Ctr Stat Sci, Providence, RI 02912 USA

[5] Univ Texas Hlth Sci Ctr San Antonio, Dept Psychiat, Sch Med, San Antonio, TX 78229 USA

[6] Univ Texas Hlth Sci Ctr San Antonio, Dept Epidemiol & Biostat, Sch Med, San Antonio, TX 78229 USA

[7] Univ Calif Berkeley, Sch Publ Hlth, Joint Med Program, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

关键词: CRH challenge;    Cortisol;    Sex differences;    Puberty;    Depression;    Adolescent;    Children;    HPA;    Gender differences;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.02.017

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Objective: Consistent sex differences in regulation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis have been shown in animal models and emerge over puberty. However, parallel work in humans is lacking despite implications for elucidating the emergence of sex differences in depression over puberty. We investigated sex differences in HPA response to corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) challenge over puberty in a carefully screened normative sample. Methods: Participants were 68 healthy children (41% girls), ages 6-16, with no personal or family history of psychiatric disorder. Pubertal maturation was determined by Tanner staging. Following 24 h of adaptation, 9-10 plasma cortisol samples were collected over 30-40 min pre-infusion baseline, 1 mu g/kg CRH infusion, and 90-180 min post-infusion recovery. Thirty-seven participants completed 2+ CRH challenges allowing inclusion of cross-sectional and longitudinal data in all analyses. The influence of gender and pubertal maturation on parameters of cortisol response to CRH challenge was investigated using nonlinear mixed model methodology. Results: Girls showed increasing total cortisol output following CRH challenge over puberty, while boys showed little change in total cortisol output over puberty. Increased cortisol output in girls was explained by slower reactivity and recovery rates leading to prolonged time to reach peak cortisol and delayed return to baseline over puberty. Girls also showed increasing baseline cortisol over puberty, while boys showed declining baseline over puberty. Conclusion: Results reveal subtle normative sex differences in the influence of pubertal maturation on HPA regulation at the pituitary level. This normative shift may tip the balance towards stress response dysregulation in girls at high risk for depression, and may represent one potential mechanism underlying elevated rates of depression among pubescent girls. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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