Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) and its major risk factor hypertension have both been associated with altered activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis but the biological mechanisms underlying prospective associations with adverse disease outcomes are unclear. We investigated diurnal HPA-axis activity in CHD-patients, hypertensive (HT) and healthy normotensive men (NT) and tested for prospective associations with biological CHD risk factors.
Methods: Eighty-three male CHD-patients, 54 HT and 54 NT men repeatedly measured salivary cortisol over two consecutive days. Prospective CHD risk was assessed by changes between baseline and follow-up in the prothrombotic factors D-dimer and fibrinogen, the pro-inflammatory measures interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and acute phase protein C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as blood lipids in terms of total cholesterol (tChol)/high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL)-ratio. We aggregated coagulation and inflammatory measures to respective indices.
Results: The groups differed in repeated daytime cortisol (dayCort) secretion (=.005,η =.03,=0.18) and cortisol awakening response (CAR) (=.006,η =.03,=0.18), with similarly lower overall dayCort and CAR in CHD-patients and HT, as compared to NT. The groups differed further in cortisol at awakening (=.015,η =.04,=0.20) with highest levels in HT (´s≤.050), and in diurnal slope between waking and evening cortisol (=.033,η =.04,=0.20) with steepest slopes in HT (´s≤.039), although in part not independent of confounders. Lower aggregated dayCort and CAR in terms of area-under-the-curve (AUC) independently predicted increases in future overall CHD risk (AUC: =.021,η =.10,=0.33;AUC: =.028,η =.09,=0.31) 3.00 ± 0.06() years later, with risk prediction most pronounced in fibrinogen (AUC: =.017,Δ = 0.12;AUC: =.082).
Conclusion: We found evidence for an HPA-axis hypoactivity in CHD and HT with lower diurnal HPA-axis activity predicting increases in cardiovascular risk as evidenced by increases in circulating levels of biomarkers of atherothrombotic risk. Down-regulation of basal HPA-axis activity may contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and thrombosis in CHD effects on coagulation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2023.1080938 | DOI Listing |
J Inflamm Res
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL, USA.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common and severe neuropsychiatric condition resulting in irregular alterations in affect, mood, and cognition. Besides the well-studied neurotransmission-related etiologies of MDD, several biological systems and phenomena, such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and cytokine signaling, have been implicated as being altered and contributing to depressive symptoms. However, the manner in which these factors interact with each other to induce their effects on MDD development has been less clear, but is beginning to be understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
January 2025
Behavioral Ecology Department, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a dual role in the biology of developmental plasticity in mammals, including humans-HPA axis activity not only provides the input for, but is also a target of, offspring developmental plasticity. To investigate the understudied effects of exposure timing, this study quantified maternal HPA axis activity during each half of gestation as well as during early lactation and assessed its effect on offspring HPA axis activity in a cross-sectional sample of infant, juvenile and adult Assamese macaques (). To add ecological validity to experimental studies under laboratory conditions, macaques were studied in the wild.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Psychol
January 2025
Psychoeducation School, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Introduction: As people age, chronic stress, resulting in prolonged or repeated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, has been associated with long-term adverse health outcomes. Coping strategies and social support have been recognized as contributing to resilience to stress in older adults. Few studies have evaluated stress management training (SMT) interventions based on psychoneuroendocrinology that were designed to be delivered to healthy older adults in community settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Pain Medicine, Aichi Medical University, Nagakute, Aichi, Japan.
Background: Lowering barometric pressure (LP) can exacerbate neuropathic pain. However, animal studies in this field are limited to a few conditions. Furthermore, although sympathetic involvement has been reported as a possible mechanism, whether the sympathetic nervous system is involved in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubcell Biochem
January 2025
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies C. Darwin, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Epigenetic mechanisms are key processes that constantly reshape genome activity carrying out physiological responses to environmental stimuli. Such mechanisms regulate gene activity without modifying the DNA sequence, providing real-time adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Both favorable and unfavorable lifestyles have been shown to influence body and brain by means of epigenetics, leaving marks on the genome that can either be rapidly reversed or persist in time and even be transmitted trans-generationally.
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