Cancer Epidemiology Centre, The Cancer Council of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2011 Apr 27;9:57. doi: 10.1186/1477-7827-9-57.
The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is used as a marker of prenatal sex hormone exposure. The objective of this study was to examine whether circulating concentrations of sex hormones and SHBG measured in adulthood was associated with 2D:4D.
This analysis was based on a random sample from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. The sample consisted of of 1036 men and 620 post-menopausal women aged between 39 and 70 at the time of blood draw. Concentrations of circulating sex hormones were measured from plasma collected at baseline (1990-1994), while digit length was measured from hand photocopies taken during a recent follow-up (2003-2009). The outcome measures were circulating concentrations of testosterone, oestradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, androstenedione, Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, androstenediol glucoronide for men only and oestrone sulphate for women only. Free testosterone and oestradiol were estimated using standard formulae derived empirically. Predicted geometric mean hormone concentrations (for tertiles of 2D:4D) and conditional correlation coefficients (for continuous 2D:4D) were obtained using mixed effects linear regression models.
No strong associations were observed between 2D:4D measures and circulating concentrations of hormones for men or women. For males, right 2D:4D was weakly inversely associated with circulating testosterone (predicted geometric mean testosterone was 15.9 and 15.0 nmol/L for the lowest and highest tertiles of male right 2D:4D respectively (P-trend = 0.04). There was a similar weak association between male right 2D:4D and the ratio of testosterone to oestradiol. These associations were not evident in analyses of continuous 2D:4D.
There were no strong associations between any adult circulating concentration of sex hormone or SHGB and 2D:4D. These results contribute to the growing body of evidence indicating that 2D:4D is unrelated to adult sex hormone concentrations.
第二到第四指骨长度比（2D：4D）可作为产前性激素暴露的标志物。本研究旨在检验成年后循环性激素和 SHBG 浓度与 2D：4D 的相关性。
本分析基于墨尔本合作队列研究的随机样本。该样本包括 1036 名男性和 620 名绝经后女性，采血时年龄在 39 至 70 岁之间。基线（1990-1994 年）时采集血浆以测量循环性激素浓度，而近期随访（2003-2009 年）时采集手部影印件以测量指长。男性的检测指标为循环睾酮、雌二醇、脱氢表雄酮硫酸盐、雄烯二酮、性激素结合球蛋白、雄烯二醇葡萄糖醛酸酯，女性的检测指标仅为雌酮硫酸盐。游离睾酮和雌二醇使用经验公式进行估算。采用混合效应线性回归模型获得 2D：4D 三分位数的预测几何平均激素浓度（predicted geometric mean hormone concentrations）和连续 2D：4D 的条件相关系数（conditional correlation coefficients）。
男性和女性的 2D：4D 与循环激素浓度之间未观察到强烈关联。对于男性，右手 2D：4D 与循环睾酮呈弱负相关（最低和最高三分位数男性右侧 2D：4D 的预测几何平均睾酮分别为 15.9 和 15.0 nmol/L（趋势 P = 0.04）。男性右侧 2D：4D 与睾酮与雌二醇的比值之间也存在类似的弱相关性。在分析连续 2D：4D 时，这些关联并不明显。
任何成人循环性激素或 SHBG 浓度与 2D：4D 之间均无强烈关联。这些结果为 2D：4D 与成人性激素浓度无关的不断增加的证据做出了贡献。
