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Cortisol in human tissues at different stages of life

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Abstract

Aim of the work was to measure the Cortisol level in human tissues at different stages of life, by means of radioimmunoassay and by chromatography. Viable samples of 13 different tissues were obtained during surgical intervention from 30 to 70 years old patients of either sex. Mean tissue Cortisol concentration was 78±35 ng/g, ranging from 20±10 ng/g in the thyroid to 124±76 ng/g in the kidney. Similar values were measured in the corresponding tissues from not decayed corpses, so that paired values could be mediated. However the pancreas, and corrupted autopsy tissues, gave nil or exceedingly high Cortisol concentration values; in some cases, opposite extreme values were measured in different organs of the same body. Cortisol concentration was also measured in 11 sound different tissues of spontaneously aborted or stillbirth fetuses, between 16 and 36 weeks of gestation. Mean value was 63±27 ng/g, ranging from 30±25 ng/g in the liver to 104±52 ng/g in the lungs. Also in fetuses nil or exceedingly high Cortisol values occurred in altered tissues. One hundred and fourteen samples of limbs and carcasses of 7 to 12 gestational weeks embryos, obtained from voluntary abortions, were also examined: 20% gave nil result, in the remaining mean Cortisol concentration was 32 ng/g. In 33 samples of embryos’ mixed viscera, RIA and chromatography gave unreliable exceedingly high values. The nil and the exceedingly high values measured in the altered autoptic tissue specimens were inconsistent with the Cortisol blood level measured in the patients, as were those measured in embryonic tissues with the acknowledged blood and adrenals Cortisol levels at that stage of life. Thus Cortisol may be measured by RIA and by chromatography in sound tissues, while the values obtained in the pancreas, in corrupted tissues, and in embryonal viscera do not represent the hormonal milieu, but are likely artifacts due to impeachment of the diagnostic system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ospedale Mauriziano Umberto I, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    A. Costa

  2. Dipartimento di Discipline Ginecologiche ed Ostetriche, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    C. Benedetto, L. Marozio & A. Emanuel

  3. Cattedra di Neonatologia, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    C. Fabris & E. Bertino

  4. Dipartimento di Chimica Analitica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    G. F. Giraudi

  5. Servizio di Medicina Nucleare, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    O. Testori & M. Ariano

  6. II Divisone di Chirurgia Generale, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy

    G. Varvello

  7. Servizio di Anatomia e Istologia Patologica e Citodiagnostica, Azienda Ospedaliera O.I.R.M. - Sant’Anna, Torino, Italy

    R. Arisio

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Costa, A., Benedetto, C., Fabris, C. et al. Cortisol in human tissues at different stages of life. J Endocrinol Invest 19, 463–471 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03349892

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