Measurements of chronically accumulated cortisol by using fingernail samples

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13169
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health,Japan
• Principal Investigator: Izawa Shuhei 独立行政法人労働者健康安全機構労働安全衛生総合研究所, 産業ストレス研究グループ, 上席研究員 (00409757)
• Research Collaborator: Ogawa Namiko 文教大学, 生活科学研究所, 客員研究員 (60795524)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: コルチゾール / 爪 / ストレス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is well known that chronic psychosocial stress could cause depression and heart disease. Considering the assessment of chronic psychosocial stress, in this study, we focused cortisol contained in fingernail samples, and investigated the procedure for determining fingernail cortisol. Fourteen healthy males provided fingernail sample, and we measured cortisol levels in the fingernails, in which we investigated the effects of ground-fingernail grain size and cortisol extraction time. The results indicated that finer grading and longer extraction time was associated with higher cortisol levels. This study demonstrated that the grain-size of ground fingernails and extraction time could affect the amount of extracted cortisol obtained from fingernails and should therefore be considered during fingernail cortisol assay.

Free Research Field

生理心理学