Hair-Based Assessment of Sex Steroid Hormones in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa
Victoria-Luise Batury,
Friederike I. Tam,
Inger Hellerhoff,
Marie-Louis Wronski,
Katrin Borucki,
Kerstin Weidner,
Veit Roessner,
Wei Gao,
Stefan Ehrlich
Affiliations
Victoria-Luise Batury
Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Friederike I. Tam
Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Inger Hellerhoff
Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Marie-Louis Wronski
Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Katrin Borucki
Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
Kerstin Weidner
Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Veit Roessner
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Wei Gao
Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Stefan Ehrlich
Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, University Hospital C.G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex psychiatric disorder accompanied by a variety of endocrine effects. Altered levels of the sex steroid hormones progesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) have been shown to occur in patients with AN using short-term hormonal measurement methods based on blood, saliva, and urine samples. However, since sex steroid hormone levels fluctuate during the menstrual cycle, these measurement methods require a great deal of effort due to the need to collect multiple samples in order to correctly determine the basal level of sex hormones. In contrast, hair-based assessments provide a marker of accumulated longer-term hormone exposure using a single, non-invasive sample. The aim of this study was to investigate sex steroid hormone levels via hair-based assessments in acutely underweight AN in comparison with healthy, age-matched, female control participants. Additionally, we compared progesterone and DHEA hair levels longitudinally during inpatient treatment in AN. Collected hair samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to determine a monthly hormone level of progesterone and DHEA. Our results indicate that DHEA hair hormone levels were similar across groups but progesterone was suppressed in underweight AN compared with healthy controls. In the longitudinal design, no significant change in hair hormone levels during partial weight restoration in patients with AN was observed. Our findings suggest that hair analysis can be used to detect suppressed progesterone levels in severe AN, and that progesterone does not increase during short-term weight restoration.
