2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A pilot study for visualizing diurnal hormonal secretion pattern within a hair

Research Project

Project/Area Number	25540122
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Kansei informatics
Research Institution	Nagaoka University of Technology
Principal Investigator	NOMURA Shusaku 長岡技術科学大学, 工学部, 准教授 (80362911)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	HONDA Hajime 長岡技術科学大学, 工学部, 准教授 (20192742) SHIMODA Yasushi 長岡技術科学大学, 工学部, 准教授 (00291154)
Project Period (FY)	2013-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	ストレス / 感性生理学 / 感性生理学 / 実験系心理学
Research Abstract	The hormones shows a characteristic diurnal secretion pattern, the higher in the morning and lower in the evening. This diurnal hormonal secretion in the blood might be recorded within a hair just like as "an annual ring of tree," because the hair growth, which is about 0.3 mm every day, is involved one of the most active cellular activity in the body. The challenge of this study is to visualize this diurnal pattern by using biochemical analysis, such as protein staining and immunostaining. This objective has yet to be achieved so far. However, there accumulated the techniques and knowledge to reach a final goal, such as development of making hair section technique and protein staining procedure for the hair section, and observation of detailed hormonal diurnal patter, especially during night through morning.