Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, United States of America.
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, United States of America.
Horm Behav. 2020 Sep;125:104816. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104816. Epub 2020 Jul 17.
As a period of heightened plasticity, puberty may provide a window of opportunity for recalibration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to current conditions. Our group has recently documented evidence for pubertal recalibration of HPA axis reactivity among children internationally adopted as infants from institutions into supportive, well-resourced homes. As a first step at examining potential mechanisms by which puberty may facilitate recalibration of the HPA axis, the current study assessed whether previously-institutionalized (PI) children differed from non-adopted (NA) comparison children in levels of the adrenal steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and in its intra-individual covariation (coupling) with cortisol by adrenal pubertal stage. In an accelerated longitudinal design, 7- to 15-year-olds completed up to 3 annual assessments, which included nurse-conducted pubertal staging and the Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-M). Adrenal (pubic hair) rather than gonadal pubertal stage scores were used in the analysis. Paired salivary cortisol-DHEA samples were available at 60-80 min post-TSST-M. NA and PI children did not differ in DHEA levels, which were higher among children at more advanced pubertal stages (averaged across the sessions) for both groups. For NA children, post-stressor cortisol and DHEA were positively coupled across sessions at all average adrenal pubertal stages. For PI children who were, on average, at earlier adrenal pubertal stages, post-stressor cortisol and DHEA were not coupled, but PI children who were at later pubertal stages demonstrated positive cortisol-DHEA coupling similar to that of the NA children. We suggest that these findings provide insights into processes which may underlie pubertal recalibration of the HPA axis.
作为一个高度活跃的可塑性时期，青春期可能为重新校准下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴以适应当前环境提供了一个机会。我们的团队最近记录了国际收养机构中的儿童在进入支持性、资源充足的家庭后的青春期对 HPA 轴反应的重新校准的证据。作为研究青春期可能促进 HPA 轴重新校准的潜在机制的第一步，本研究评估了以前在机构中生活的儿童（PI）与未被收养的（NA）对照组儿童在肾上腺类固醇激素脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）水平及其与皮质醇的个体内相关性（耦合）方面是否存在差异，这种相关性是由肾上腺青春期阶段决定的。在加速的纵向设计中，7 至 15 岁的儿童完成了最多 3 次年度评估，其中包括护士进行的青春期分期和儿童改良特里尔社会压力测试（TSST-M）。在分析中使用了肾上腺（阴毛）而不是性腺青春期分期评分。在 TSST-M 后 60-80 分钟，可获得配对的唾液皮质醇-DHEA 样本。NA 和 PI 儿童的 DHEA 水平没有差异，两组中更高级别青春期阶段（所有阶段的平均值）的儿童 DHEA 水平更高。对于 NA 儿童，在所有平均肾上腺青春期阶段，应激后皮质醇和 DHEA 呈正相关。对于平均处于更早肾上腺青春期阶段的 PI 儿童，应激后皮质醇和 DHEA 没有相关性，但处于更晚青春期阶段的 PI 儿童表现出与 NA 儿童相似的正皮质醇-DHEA 相关性。我们认为，这些发现为理解 HPA 轴重新校准的潜在过程提供了线索。
