INTRODUCTION Rapid and accurate risk stratification in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an unmet clinical need. Cortisol to dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) ratio was put forward as a prognostic marker in sepsis. We herein validated the prognostic value of the adrenal hormones DHEA, DHEA-Sulfate (DHEAS), cortisol/DHEA-, cortisol/DHEAS- and DHEA/DHEAS-ratios in patients with CAP....

Most studies on the stress-responsiveness of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have focused on glucocorticoids, while few studies have investigated the adrenal secretion of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), which is unique to primates. Monkeys were chair-restrained for 2h per day for seven consecutive days, and blood samples were collected upon placement in the chair, and at 1...

BACKGROUND Decreased activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in response to stress is suspected to be a vulnerability factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies showed inconsistent findings regarding the role of cortisol in predicting PTSD. In addition, no prospective studies have examined the role of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), or its sulfate form ...

DHEA is the major precursor of human sex steroid synthesis and is inactivated via sulfonation to DHEAS. A previous genome-wide association study related the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2637125, located near the coding region of DHEA sulfotransferase, SULT2A1, to serum DHEAS concentrations. However, the functional relevance of this SNP with regard to DHEA sulfonation is unknown. Using...

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate serum levels of the hormone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), during the pre-pubertal, pubertal, and adult stages of skeletal maturation based on the methods of Björk and Grave and Brown of assessing hand-wrist radiographs. The levels of the DHEAS of each individual were measured using quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay a...

Intraperitoneal injection of adult male mice with the neuroactive steroid dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) at 1 and 40 mg/kg caused dose-dependent increases in the concentration of both this compound and its corresponding free steroid DHEA in brain within 1 h of injection. Pretreatment of these animals for 24 h with the steroid sulfatase inhibitor COUMATE at a dose (10 mg/kg, p.o.) shown ...

OBJECTIVES L-carnitine and dehydro-epiandrosterone (DHEA) independently promote mitochondrial energy metabolism. We therefore wondered if an age-related deficiency of L-carnitine or DHEA may account for the declining energy metabolism associated with age. METHODS we evaluated serum levels of L-carnitine and the sulphated derivative of DHEA (DHEAS) in cross-sectional study of 216 healthy adult...

It has been suggested that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate ester, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), have a protec tive effect against breast cancer. In our investigation, DHEAS levels were measured in plasma obtained and frozen in 1972-1974 from 534 women aged 50-79 yr. This group, which has been followed for 15 yr, included 21 incident cases of breast cancer, 20 cases with ...

Administration of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), or its sulfated form (DHEAS), controls hyperglycemia in diabetic rodents without directly altering insulin sensitivity. We show that DHEAS enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion when administered in vivo to rats or in vitro to -cell lines, without changing cellular insulin content. Insulin secretion increased from 3 days of steroid exposur...

Chronic feeding of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfated metabolite, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), has previously been reported to decrease hyperglycemia, obesity, cancer, and autoantibody generation in a number of animal models and to increase muscle mass and physiological and psychological well-being in elderly humans, although these latter studies remain controversial. The...