Hair cortisol reduction and social integration enhancement after a mindfulness-based intervention in children.

BACKGROUND: Over recent decades, chronic stress at an early age has become a worrying health problem in children. We seek to evaluate an intervention involving mindfulness-based practices and prosocial activities in 7- to 8-year-old children. METHODS: Stress levels were determined using hair cortisol concentration (HCC), and social integration was measured by means of a sociogram. The program had previously proven to be effective in decreasing salivary cortisol levels and in favouring social integration in children. A total of 35 children participated in the study: 18 constituted the intervention group and 17 the wait-list group. In both groups, HCC and social integration were evaluated before and after the intervention conducted throughout an entire school year. RESULTS: The experimental group showed a significant reduction in HCC, as well as significant enhancement of social integration levels, whereas no changes were observed in the wait-list group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first research to show that HCC, a reliable neuroendocrine indicator, decreased as a result of a mindfulness-based program. This successful outcome adds new evidence to previous findings regarding the reduction of chronic stress in children following participation in this program.

Remnant cholesterol levels are associated with severity and death in COVID-19 patients.

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients with severe complications present comorbidities like cardiovascular-disease, hypertension and type-2 diabetes mellitus (DM), sharing metabolic alterations like insulin resistance (IR) and dyslipidemia. Our objective was to evaluate the association among different components of the lipid-lipoprotein profile, such as remnant lipoprotein (RLP)-cholesterol, in patients with COVID-19, and to analyze their associations with the severity of the disease and death. We studied 193 patients (68 (29-96) years; 49.7% male) hospitalized for COVID-19 and 200 controls (46 (18-79) years; 52.5% male). Lipoprotein profile, glucose and procalcitonin were assessed. Patients presented higher glucose, TG, TG/HDL-cholesterol and RLP-cholesterol levels, but lower total, LDL, HDL and no-HDL-cholesterol levels (p < 0.001). When a binary logistic regression was performed, age, non-HDL-cholesterol, and RLP-cholesterol were associated with death (p = 0.005). As the COVID-19 condition worsened, according to procalcitonin tertiles, a decrease in all the cholesterol fractions (p < 0.03) was observed with no differences in TG, while levels of RLP-cholesterol and TG/HDL-cholesterol increased (p < 0.001). Lower levels of all the cholesterol fractions were related with the presence and severity of COVID-19, except for RLP-cholesterol levels and TG/HDL-cholesterol index. These alterations indicate a lipid metabolic disorder, characteristic of IR states in COVID-19 patients. RLP-cholesterol levels predicted severity and death in these patients.

Maternal-fetal stress and DNA methylation signatures in neonatal saliva: an epigenome-wide association study.

BACKGROUND: Maternal stress before, during and after pregnancy has profound effects on the development and lifelong function of the infant's neurocognitive development. We hypothesized that the programming of the central nervous system (CNS), hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS) induced by prenatal stress (PS) is reflected in electrophysiological and epigenetic biomarkers. In this study, we aimed to find noninvasive epigenetic biomarkers of PS in the newborn salivary DNA. RESULTS: A total of 728 pregnant women were screened for stress exposure using Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), 164 women were enrolled, and 114 dyads were analyzed. Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (PDQ) was also administered to assess specific pregnancy worries. Transabdominal fetal electrocardiograms (taECG) were recorded to derive coupling between maternal and fetal heart rates resulting in a 'Fetal Stress Index' (FSI). Upon delivery, we collected maternal hair strands for cortisol measurements and newborn's saliva for epigenetic analyses. DNA was extracted from saliva samples, and DNA methylation was measured using EPIC BeadChip array (850 k CpG sites). Linear regression was used to identify associations between PSS/PDQ/FSI/Cortisol and DNA methylation. We found epigenome-wide significant associations for 5 CpG with PDQ and cortisol at FDR < 5%. Three CpGs were annotated to genes (Illumina Gene annotation file): YAP1, TOMM20 and CSMD1, and two CpGs were located approximately lay at 50 kb from SSBP4 and SCAMP1. In addition, two differentiated methylation regions (DMR) related to maternal stress measures PDQ and cortisol were found: DAXX and ARL4D. CONCLUSIONS: Genes annotated to these CpGs were found to be involved in secretion and transportation, nuclear signaling, Hippo signaling pathways, apoptosis, intracellular trafficking and neuronal signaling. Moreover, some CpGs are annotated to genes related to autism, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia. However, our results should be viewed as hypothesis generating until replicated in a larger sample. Early assessment of such noninvasive PS biomarkers will allow timelier detection of babies at risk and a more effective allocation of resources for early intervention programs to improve child development. A biomarker-guided early intervention strategy is the first step in the prevention of future health problems, reducing their personal and societal impact.

Effects of Occupational Therapy Program Based on Active Meditation on Hair Cortisol Levels in Undergraduate Healthcare Students.

Methods: Undergraduate students from the University of Chile's health careers were divided at random into control (n = 7) and treated groups (n = 15). The treated group participated in an active meditation program once a week for three months. This treatment included different techniques such as Chakra Sounds, Nataraj, Mandala, Kundalini, Devavani, Gourishankar, and Nadabrahma. Hair samples were taken before and after the treatment period to measure cortisol. Results: The control group increased cortisol level 168.9 ± 76.8 pg/mg compared with initial levels. The treated group shows a decrease of initial cortisol values in 28.5 ± 12.8 pg/mg after meditation protocol application. Conclusions: Blending active meditation in students' daily routine through occupational therapy intervention might prevent undergraduate students' stress in healthcare careers.

Prenatal stress perturbs fetal iron homeostasis in a sex specific manner.

The adverse effects of maternal prenatal stress (PS) on child's neurodevelopment warrant the establishment of biomarkers that enable early interventional therapeutic strategies. We performed a prospective matched double cohort study screening 2000 pregnant women in third trimester with Cohen Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) questionnaire; 164 participants were recruited and classified as stressed and control group (SG, CG). Fetal cord blood iron parameters of 107 patients were measured at birth. Transabdominal electrocardiograms-based Fetal Stress Index (FSI) was derived. We investigated sex contribution to group differences and conducted causal inference analyses to assess the total effect of PS exposure on iron homeostasis using a directed acyclic graph (DAG) approach. Differences are reported for p < 0.05 unless noted otherwise. Transferrin saturation was lower in male stressed neonates. The minimum adjustment set of the DAG to estimate the total effect of PS exposure on fetal ferritin iron biomarkers consisted of maternal age and socioeconomic status: SG revealed a 15% decrease in fetal ferritin compared with CG. Mean FSI was higher among SG than among CG. FSI-based timely detection of fetuses affected by PS can support early individualized iron supplementation and neurodevelopmental follow-up to prevent long-term sequelae due to PS-exacerbated impairment of the iron homeostasis.

Detection of maternal and fetal stress from the electrocardiogram with self-supervised representation learning.

In the pregnant mother and her fetus, chronic prenatal stress results in entrainment of the fetal heartbeat by the maternal heartbeat, quantified by the fetal stress index (FSI). Deep learning (DL) is capable of pattern detection in complex medical data with high accuracy in noisy real-life environments, but little is known about DL's utility in non-invasive biometric monitoring during pregnancy. A recently established self-supervised learning (SSL) approach to DL provides emotional recognition from electrocardiogram (ECG). We hypothesized that SSL will identify chronically stressed mother-fetus dyads from the raw maternal abdominal electrocardiograms (aECG), containing fetal and maternal ECG. Chronically stressed mothers and controls matched at enrolment at 32 weeks of gestation were studied. We validated the chronic stress exposure by psychological inventory, maternal hair cortisol and FSI. We tested two variants of SSL architecture, one trained on the generic ECG features for emotional recognition obtained from public datasets and another transfer-learned on a subset of our data. Our DL models accurately detect the chronic stress exposure group (AUROC = 0.982 ± 0.002), the individual psychological stress score (R2 = 0.943 ± 0.009) and FSI at 34 weeks of gestation (R2 = 0.946 ± 0.013), as well as the maternal hair cortisol at birth reflecting chronic stress exposure (0.931 ± 0.006). The best performance was achieved with the DL model trained on the public dataset and using maternal ECG alone. The present DL approach provides a novel source of physiological insights into complex multi-modal relationships between different regulatory systems exposed to chronic stress. The final DL model can be deployed in low-cost regular ECG biosensors as a simple, ubiquitous early stress detection and monitoring tool during pregnancy. This discovery should enable early behavioral interventions.

Evaluation of stress, burnout and hair cortisol levels in health workers at a University Hospital during COVID-19 pandemic.

In the critical context of COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are on the front line, participating directly in the care, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with COVID-19. This exposes them to a higher risk of developing chronic stress, psychological distress, and any other mental health symptoms. OBJECTIVE: to evaluate stress and burnout in a health workers population and, in addition, to measure hair cortisol concentration as a current biomarker of stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 234 health workers from Hospital de Clínicas "José de San Martín", Buenos Aires University, were included in this study. In this population hair samples were obtained from the posterior vertex as close to the scalp as possible and the individuals completed the following surveys: perceived stress, social support, burnout scale, life event scale, and sociodemographic data. Hair cortisol was measured by an automated chemiluminescent method. The studied population was divided into three groups considering those individuals below the healthy reference sample range (< 40 pg/mg hair), within the healthy reference range (40-128 pg/mg hair) and above the reference range (> 128 pg/mg hair). This study used a transversal and observational design. RESULTS: Our results show that 40% of the studied population presented hair cortisol values outside of the healthy reference range. In the whole studied population, a direct correlation was found between hair cortisol concentration and perceived stress as well as between hair cortisol concentration and the emotional exhaustion component of burnout (r = 0.142, p = 0.030; r = 0.143, p = 0.029, respectively). 12% of the studied population showed Burnout (52% doctors and residents, 19% nurses, 19% administrative personnel). Higher values in hair cortisol levels were found in the group with burnout versus individuals without burnout (p = 0.034). Finally, a mediation analysis was performed, finding that depersonalization is a mediating variable in the relationship between self-perceived stress and hair cortisol level (F = 4.86, p = 0.0086; indirect effect IC: 0.0987-1.8840). CONCLUSION: This is the first study in which a stress biomarker such as hair cortisol is evaluated in this population and in this context. Healthcare workers are subjected to increased levels of stress and burnout. High depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and decreased personal sense of accomplishment characterize this population. It is the responsibility of the health authorities to implement strategies to manage this psychological emergency.

Immune variations throughout the course of tuberculosis treatment and its relationship with adrenal hormone changes in HIV-1 patients co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

HIV infection is a major risk factor predisposing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and progression to active tuberculosis (TB). As host immune response defines the course of infection, we aimed to identify immuno-endocrine changes over six-months of anti-TB chemotherapy in HIV+ people. Plasma levels of cortisol, DHEA and DHEA-S, percentages of CD4+ regulatory T cell subsets and number of IFN-γ-secreting cells were determined. Several cytokines, chemokines and C-reactive protein levels were measured. Results were correlated with clinical parameters as predictors of infection resolution and compared to similar data from HIV+ individuals, HIV-infected persons with latent TB infection and healthy donors. Throughout the course of anti-TB/HIV treatment, DHEA and DHEA-S plasma levels raised while cortisol diminished, which correlated to predictive factors of infection resolution. Furthermore, the balance between cortisol and DHEA, together with clinical assessment, may be considered as an indicator of clinical outcome after anti-TB treatment in HIV+ individuals. Clinical improvement was associated with reduced frequency of unconventional Tregs, increment in IFN-γ-secreting cells, diminution of systemic inflammation and changes of circulating cytokines and chemokines. This study suggests that the combined anti-HIV/TB therapies result in partial restoration of both, immune function and adrenal hormone plasma levels.

Evaluación de la funcionalidad del eje hipotálamo-hipófiso-adrenal a través del test de respuesta del cortisol al despertar en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 con y sin depresión: Estudio Multicéntrico Argentino (EMA-1) / Evaluation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis using the cortisol awakening response test in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with and without depression: Multicenter Argentine Study (EMA-1)

Introducción: la depresión (DP) tiene una alta prevalencia en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 (DM1) y se asocia a repercusiones clínicas negativas como mayor morbimortalidad cardiovascular y complicaciones crónicas. Existen pocos estudios publicados sobre la funcionalidad del eje hipotálamo-hipófiso-adrenal (H-H-A) en DM1 con DP, y la relación entre la DP y el test de respuesta del cortisol al despertar (RCD) con el control glucémico (CG). Objetivos: analizar la funcionalidad del eje H-H-A a través de la evaluación del RCD en pacientes con DM1 (PD1) con y sin DP. Como objetivos secundarios, conocer la prevalencia de DP en PD1 y ver si existe relación entre el RCD y CG, y entre DP y CG. Materiales y métodos: estudio observacional, prospectivo, de corte transversal, multicéntrico, nacional. Se incluyeron PD1 mayores de 18 años; se utilizó cuestionario Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) para diagnóstico de DP. Se tomaron muestras de cortisol salival al despertar y a los 30 minutos (RCD), y se consideró RCD bloqueado si el valor de cortisol de los 30 minutos no aumentaba más del 50% del basal. Además se tomaron muestras de sangre en ayunas para medir glucemia, fructosamina y HbA1c. Resultados: se incluyeron 79 pacientes, 39% hombres, edad promedio 38±15 años, duración de la diabetes de 16±13 años; 53% casados/en pareja y 87% con ingresos económicos estables. El 68% de los PD1 presentó el RCD bloqueado. En PD1 con DP el 85% presentó el RCD bloqueado vs el 60% en los no deprimidos y dicha diferencia fue marginalmente significativa (p=0,05). La prevalencia de DP fue de 39%. No se encontró ninguna relación significativa entre RCD bloqueado y control glucémico (p>0,05). Los PD1 con DP moderada-severa presentaron un peor control glucémico en relación a los PD1 sin depresión (evaluado por glucemia mayor de 120 mg/dl, fructosamina mayor de 285 umol/l; p<0,05) y la relación no fue significativa para HbA1c aunque mostró una tendencia. Conclusiones: en pacientes con DM1 y DP se halló el RCD bloqueado en un alto porcentaje. Dado que la DP se asocia a mayor morbimortalidad cardiovascular, podría utilizarse el test de RCD como biomarcador de DP, y podría servir para estratificar esta sub-población de alto de riesgo. La depresión moderada-severa se asoció a peor control glucémico, por lo tanto, diagnosticar y tratar adecuadamente la DP en PD1 podría contribuir a prevenir la aparición o progresión de complicaciones crónicas.

Introduction: depression (DP) has a high prevalence in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) and is associated with negative clinicals consequences like more cardiovascular morbimortality and chronic complications. There are few studies published about the dysregulation of hypothalamopituitary-adrenal axis (H-P-A) in DM1 with DP and the relation between DP and the Cortisol Awakening Response Test (CAR) with the glycemic control (GC). Objectives: examine the functionality of the H-P-A axis using the Cortisol Awakening Response Test (CAR), in patients with DM1 (PD1) with and without DP. Determine the prevalence of DP in PD1 and examine if there is any relation between CAR and GC and DP and poorer GC. Materials and methods: observational, prospective, national, multicenter study. Patients with DM1, older than 18 years old; Patient Health-9 questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to diagnose DP and 2 samples of salivary cortisol, and blood samples for glycemia, glycated albumin and Hba1c. Results: 79 patients with DM1 (PD1) were included, 39% male, mean age 38± 15 years old, an average of 16±13 years evolution of diabetes; 53 % married/couple and 87 % have a regular incomes. 68% of PD1 presented CAR blunted. In PD1 with DP 85% has CAR blunted versus 60% in those without DP, and this difference was marginally significant (p=0.05). The prevalence of DP was 39%. No significant relation was found between CAR blunted and glycemic control (p>0.05).PD1 with Moderate-severe DP showed worse metabolic control than the PD1 without DP (evaluated by glycemia higher than 120 mg/dl, glycated albumin higher than 285 umol/l); p<0.05) and the relation was not significant with HbA1c but it showed a trend. Conclusions: patients with DM1 and DP presented a high prevalence of CAR blunted. DP is related with higher cardiovascular morbi-mortality, thus CAR would be useful as a biomarker of DP and would be used to stratify this population of high risk. DP moderate-severe was related to worse glycemic control, hence diagnose and treat correctly DP in PD1 would contribute to prevent the onset or the evolution of chronic complications.

Hair Cortisol Measurement by an Automated Method.

We present the development of the first procedure for hair cortisol measurement through an automated method. Hair samples were obtained from 286 individuals. After cortisol extraction, samples were measured in a Siemens Immulite 2000 (Gwynedd, UK) automated chemoluminiscent immunoassay analyzer. Normal reference values were obtained from hair cortisol levels measured in 213 healthy individuals with low levels of stress. Hair cortisol concentration median was 55 pg/mg hair (2.5-97.5 percentile (40-128)) in healthy individuals with low levels of stress and 250 pg/mg hair (range 182-520) in stressed individuals. No significant differences were observed in hair cortisol levels between subjects with and without dye (40 (40-107) and 40 (40-155) pg/mg hair, respectively; p = 0.128). The novel procedure presented here shows an adequate analytical performance.

Programa para mejorar el afrontamiento del estrés de los estudiantes, los docentes y los no docentes de la Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica de la Universidad de Buenos Aires / Stress management program for students, teachers and non-teachers of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Buenos Aires

INTRODUCCIÓN Y OBJETIVOS: Los programas para mejorar el afrontamiento del estrés incluyen una serie de técnicas tales como entrenamiento en relajación, reestructuración cognitiva y manejo del tiempo, entre otras. Su aplicación ha mostrado su importancia en el campo de la Psicología de la Salud. El objetivo de este trabajo es verificar la efectividad y establecer la importancia de un programa teórico-práctico de entrenamiento para el manejo del estrés, destinado a profesionales, docentes, no docentes y estudiantes de las carreras de Farmacia y Bioquímica. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Se implementó un programa de 5 sesiones destinado a mejorar el afrontamiento del estrés. Se utilizaron como indicadores de eficacia mediciones pre-post de cortisol en cabello y nivel de ansiedad. RESULTADOS: Al finalizar el programa disminuyeron significativamente los valores de cortisol en cabello, de ansiedad estado y de ansiedad rasgo en aquellos participantes que completaron el programa. En el grupo control se observó solamente un aumento significativo en los niveles de cortisol en cabello. CONCLUSIONES: Este programa resultó efectivo para disminuir el nivel de estrés y ansiedad en los participantes, ayudando a mejorar la calidad de vida de los estudiantes y los profesionales docentes y no docentes que participaron en él

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Programs to improve stress coping include a series of techniques such as relaxation training, cognitive restructuring, and time management, among others. Its application has shown its importance in the field of Health Psychology. In the present study we show the beneficial results of a theory-practice pilot training program of stress management for professionals, teachers, non teachers and students of Pharmacy and Biochemistry. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A program of 5 sessions was implemented with the objective of improving stress management. To assess efficacy, we used hair cortisol level and anxiety level tests before and after the program. RESULTS: After the program, both hair cortisol and anxiety levels significantly decreased among participants. Hair cortisol significantly increased in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: This type of program was proved to be effective for all participants, helping to reduce stress and improving their quality of life

Vitamin D is Related to Markers of Vulnerable Plaque in Acute Myocardial Infarction.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin involved in calcium and bone metabolism; recently its deficiency has been related to cardiovascular disease. In cardiac tissue, vitamin D suppresses metalloproteinases (MMPs) expression, enzymes directly associated with vulnerable plaque. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the association between vitamin D and leptin is related to markers of vulnerable plaque, such as MMPs in patients with acute myocardial infarction. METHODS: We studied 66 male patients with acute myocardial infarction, undergoing primary angioplasty. Blood samples were obtained at admission and 24hs after the surgery. Leptin and vitamin D concentrations in serum and MMP-2 and -9 activities in plasma were determined. RESULTS: MMP-2 activity was increased in Vitamin D deficient/insufficient patients at admission (p=0.04) and 24 hs later (p=0.05). In a linear regression model, vitamin D explained 24% of the variance of MMP-2 activity (F=2.839 p=0.04). At admission, vitamin D correlated with serum leptin (r=-0.302 p=0.033), and explained 39.5% of its variation (F=4.432 p=0.003). CONCLUSION: In the studied population, vitamin D was inversely related to MMP-2 and leptin which are involved in coronary artery disease and acute myocardial infarction. The decrease in this hormone levels would be associated with a worse metabolic profile in acute coronary syndrome patients.

Prostate Cancer, High Cortisol Levels and Complex Hormonal Interaction.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common diseases in men. It is important to assess prognostic factors and whether high cortisol levels and complex hormonal interactions could be responsible for PCa development. We evaluated the relationship between cortisol, leptin and estrogens in 141 men, 71 with PCa and the remaining 70 constituting a low risk group (LRG). They were recruited for this study from a total of 2906 middleaged men (ages 4570 years) who completed an evaluation for prostatic diseases at the Urology Division, Hospital de Clinicas "Jose de San Martin", University of Buenos Aires, in May 2009. In this cross sectional study, cortisol, PSA, totaltestosterone, freetestosterone, bioavailable testosterone, LH and estradiol were measured in serum. We observed increased cortisol levels in PCa patients as compared to LRG cases (p=0.004,). Leptin and estradiol levels were also higher in PCa patients (p=0.048; p<0.0001, respectively). Logistic regression analysis indicated that serum cortisol (OR: 1.110 (95% CI 1.0161.213), p=0.022), estradiol (OR: 1.044 (95% CI 1.0081.081), p=0.016) and leptin (OR: 1.248 (95% CI 1.0481.487), p=0.013) explained 27% of the variance of dependent variables, even after adjusting for age, smoking, BMI and waist circumference. We found increased cortisol levels in PCa patients as compared to LRG, as well as an altered circulating hormonal profile.

Matrix metalloproteinases and psychosocial factors in acute coronary syndrome patients.

UNLABELLED: Psychosocial factors have been linked to cardiovascular diseases independently of traditional risk factors. The impact of psychosocial factors on plaque destabilizing factors, such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) has been proposed although scarcely studied. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationships between hostility, perceived stress and social support with MMPs activity in patients after an Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). METHODS: Blood samples were obtained from 76 patients on admission, post-angioplasty, 24h, 7 days and 3 months after AMI. Hostility, perceived stress and social support were evaluated by validated questionnaires. RESULTS: Social support was positively correlated with patients ejection fraction (r=0.453, p=0.009). Patients with higher infarct size presented increased MMP-2 activity at admission (p=0.04). Patients with one diseased vessel had more social support than those with three diseased vessels (p=0.05). The highest values of MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity were observed at the acute event, decreasing, with the lowest activity at 3 months post-AMI (p<0.001). Only in patients with low social support, hostility correlated with MMP-2 activity, from AMI onset (r=0.645, p=0.013), to 7 days post AMI (r=0.557, p=0.038). Hostility explained up to 28% of the variance in MMP-2 activity (R(2)=0.28, p=0.005). Finally, in patients with high hostility, MMP-9 was positively correlated with IL-1ß (r=0.468, p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: This study adds weight to the idea that two psychosocial factors, namely hostility and social support, acting jointly, may affect MMP-2 activity. Moreover, in hostile patients, there is a link between IL-1ß and MMP-9. These findings support the role of psychosocial factors in plaque destabilization and in the inflammatory process in AMI.

Complex relationship between sex hormones, insulin resistance and leptin in men with and without prostatic disease.

OBJECTIVES: To assess sex hormones, leptin and insulin-resistance in men with prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and to study associations between androgens and histologic score of prostate tissue in PCa. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Two hundred ten men older than 45 years selected from 2906 participants of a population screening for PCa were studied: 70 with PCa, 70 with BPH and 70 controls (CG), matched by body mass index and age. Insulin, IGF-1, PSA, leptin, total, free (fT) and bioavailable testosterone (bT) and estradiol were measured. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups considering the presence of metabolic syndrome (MS); androgens and leptin levels were analyzed in the subgroups. RESULTS: Prostate cancer and BPH patients presented higher total, fT and bT levels than CG. IGF-1, insulin and HOMA index were higher in BPH than in the other two groups. PCa presented higher leptin [median (range) 6.5 (1.3-28.0) versus 4.8 (1.1-12.3) ng/ml; p < 0.01] and estradiol [median (range) 37.0 (20-90) versus 29.0 (20-118) pg/ml; p = 0.025] levels than CG. After dividing men considering the presence of MS, leptin was higher and total testosterone was lower in MS patients in all the groups. CONCLUSIONS: It was observed a coexistence of an altered hormone profile with increased sex hormones and leptin in PCa patients, in accordance with the new perspective of PCa pathogenesis.

Hair cortisol: A new tool for evaluating stress in programs of stress management.

AIMS: Longitudinal and experimental studies have shown that chronic stress contributes to the onset and progression of different diseases. Although it is not possible to eliminate stress completely, people can learn to manage it by participating in different kinds of stress management interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of stress management interventions on neuroendocrine responses in stressed students and health professionals, by measuring hair cortisol in comparison to salivary cortisol. MAIN METHODS: Salivary and hair cortisol measurements were performed in 37 subjects (31women, 6 men; mean age 34.0±10.6) who attended to a Coping Stress and Quality of Care Program at the University of Buenos Aires. Cortisol was measured at the beginning and at the end of the program. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI was used to evaluate state and trait anxiety. KEY FINDINGS: In subjects who completed the program, no differences were observed in salivary cortisol levels between the first and the last session. However, in these subjects, hair cortisol obtained in the last session was significantly lower than hair cortisol in the first session. SIGNIFICANCE: Hair cortisol appears to be a better biomarker than salivary cortisol for evaluation of the effectiveness of a stress reduction program and it seems to be a better indicator of stress system dysregulation as well.

HIV-TB coinfection impairs CD8(+) T-cell differentiation and function while dehydroepiandrosterone improves cytotoxic antitubercular immune responses.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among HIV-positive patients. The decreasing frequencies of terminal effector (TTE ) CD8(+) T cells may increase reactivation risk in persons latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). We have previously shown that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) increases the protective antitubercular immune responses in HIV-TB patients. Here, we aimed to study Mtb-specific cytotoxicity, IFN-γ secretion, memory status of CD8(+) T cells, and their modulation by DHEA during HIV-TB coinfection. CD8(+) T cells from HIV-TB patients showed a more differentiated phenotype with diminished naïve and higher effector memory and TTE T-cell frequencies compared to healthy donors both in total and Mtb-specific CD8(+) T cells. Notably, CD8(+) T cells from HIV-TB patients displayed higher Terminal Effector (TTE ) CD45RA(dim) proportions with lower CD45RA expression levels, suggesting a not fully differentiated phenotype. Also, PD-1 expression levels on CD8(+) T cells from HIV-TB patients increased although restricted to the CD27(+) population. Interestingly, DHEA plasma levels positively correlated with TTE in CD8(+) T cells and in vitro DHEA treatment enhanced Mtb-specific cytotoxic responses and terminal differentiation in CD8(+) T cells from HIV-TB patients. Our data suggest that HIV-TB coinfection promotes a deficient CD8(+) T-cell differentiation, whereas DHEA may contribute to improving antitubercular immunity by enhancing CD8(+) T-cell functions during HIV-TB coinfection.

[Vitamin D deficit in hospitalized patients]. / Déficit de vitamina D en pacientes hospitalizados.

We prospectively studied 60 consecutive patients in order to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. All of them were inpatients, and were evaluated from October 2013 through May 2014. Levels of 25 OH vitamin D were classified as sufficient (> 30 ng/ml), mild to moderate deficiency (15 to 30 ng/ml) and severe deficiency (< 15 ng/ml). The mean age was 72.1 ± 19.5 years; 43 were females and 17 males. Five percent of the patients had normal values of vitamin D, 31.6% had mild to moderate deficit and 63.3% had severe deficit of the vitamin. Severe deficit was associated with hypoalbuminemia, compared with mild to moderate deficit and with sufficient values (2.98 g/dl vs. 3.52 g/dl and vs. 4.39 g/dl, respectively, p: 0.012) and low levels of serum calcium (8.35 mg/dl vs. 8.61 mg/dl and 9.8 mg/dl, respectively, p: 0.003). Although there was a trend of low vitamin D levels with increasing age, female sex, immobilization, higher levels of glucose and glycated haemoglobin, more duration of hospitalization, we didn't find any statistically significance difference between groups. Vitamin D deficiency is common in hospitalized patients. It correlates with low levels of serum albumin and calcium. Improving diagnosis and recognition of this condition may enable us to improve the management of this deficit.