A novel technique to measure chronic levels of corticosterone in turtles living around a major roadway

Baxter‐Gilbert, James; Riley, Julia; Mastromonaco, Gabriela F.; Litzgus, Jacqueline D.; Lesbarrères, David

doi:10.1093/conphys/cou036

Cited by 56 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Mammalian nail contains a keratinised epithelium with a vascularised inner corium, where cortisol passively accumulates from the bloodstream (Mack and Fokidis 2017). In dogs, cortisol concentrations increased with the amount of claw sample extracted, as was previously documented in a study of corticosterone in turtle claws (Baxter-Gilbert et al 2014).…”

Section: Matrices For Cortisol Measurementmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…Assessment of long-term glucocorticoid concentrations in various studies has included different keratinised tissues such as hair (Van Uum et al 2008;Veronesi et al 2015;Yamanashi et al 2016), hoof (Comin et al 2014), claws (Veronesi et al 2015), balleen plates (Hunt et al 2014), turtle claws (Baxter-Gilbert et al 2014) and feathers (Romero and Fairhurst 2016). In feathers, corticosterone is measured; the concentration of corticosterone deposited is correlated with the stresses experienced by the bird during feather growth (Romero and Fairhurst 2016).…”

Section: Matrices For Cortisol Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Mesarčová¹,

Kottferová²,

Skurková³

et al. 2017

Vet. Med.

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Cortisol, which is produced in the adrenal glands, is an endogenous glucocorticoid hormone that delivers its hormonal message to cells by acting on glucocorticoid receptors. It is one of the main stress hormones responsible for stress responses in animals and humans, and its overproduction is characteristic of certain diseases. While acute stress disorder can be evaluated by means of measuring the cortisol concentration in blood and urine, chronic stress disorder can be detected by monitoring the cortisol concentration in fur or hair. Hair collection is simple, inexpensive and non-invasive, and can be performed easily and rapidly; thus, it appears to be a suitable method for determining the level of stress in dogs from shelters, abused dogs or dogs involved in different types of animal interactions. Since it is a relatively new method, monitoring cortisol in hair or fur requires further research in order to definitively prove its efficacy, and possibly to determine reference range values for different breeds of dogs.

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Section: Matrices For Cortisol Measurementmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Matrices For Cortisol Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Mesarčová¹,

Kottferová²,

Skurková³

et al. 2017

Vet. Med.

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show abstract

“…Millspaugh and Washburn 2004;Möstl et al 2005) and this was followed more recently with measurements in hair (e.g. Davenport et al 2006), baleen (Hunt et al 2014), and turtle claws (Baxter-Gilbert et al 2014). An important feature of the last three examples is that they are keratinized tissues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring corticosterone in feathers: Strengths, limitations, and suggestions for the future

Romero¹,

Fairhurst²

2016

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular &

117

153

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The recently introduced technique of measuring corticosterone in feathers currently provides the longest-term measure of corticosterone in birds. This review examines the strengths, weaknesses, and unresolved technical issues of the feather corticosterone technique. Feather corticosterone's major strengths are that it provides: a retrospective assessment of corticosterone physiology, including information from absent (unseen) or dead (e.g. museum specimens) individuals; a long-term measure of corticosterone exposure over the period of feather growth (days-weeks), integrating both baseline and responses to stressors; and flexible, minimally-invasive, sampling. However, researchers considering this technique should be aware of its limitations. Feather corticosterone only reflects hormone exposure during feather growth and, when sampling during molt, corticosterone titers and ecological conditions may not be representative of the majority of the annual cycle. Synchronization of molt is often unknown for a population, requiring assumptions when making inter-individual comparisons. Additionally, unresolved technical issues include: assessing whether corticosterone is the only hormone measured by assays; determining deposition dynamics to fully understand connections between feather and plasma corticosterone titers; studying the longevity and stability of corticosterone in the feather; establishing the impact of feather size and color on corticosterone deposition; and understanding the causes and implications of corticosterone variation along the length of the feather. Notwithstanding the above limitations and technical challenges, determining corticosterone titers in feathers is proving to be a useful technique for exploring some ecological and physiological correlates in individual birds. Given the unique perspective that feather corticosterone offers, we suggest that this measure complement, not replace, plasma measurements.

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“…Feces, feathers, hair, and other integuments (baleen, claws, skin, etc.) provide alternatives, some of which do not even require direct capture of the organism of interest (Millspaugh and Washburn 2004, Sheriff et al 2011, Berkvens et al 2013, Baxter-Gilbert et al 2014, Hunt et al 2014. Because these samples integrate GC activity over longer time periods, they may also provide a more realistic snapshot of how an individual is responding to prevailing environmental conditions (Dantzer et al 2014).…”

Section: Implications For Baseline Gcs As Conservation Biomarkers Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation implications of a lack of relationship between baseline glucocorticoids and fitness in a wild passerine

Madliger

Love

2016

Ecological Applications

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The application of physiological measures to conservation monitoring has been gaining momentum and, while a suite of physiological traits are available to ascertain disturbance and condition in wildlife populations, glucocorticoids (i.e., GCs; cortisol and corticosterone) are the most heavily employed. The interpretation of GC levels as sensitive indicators of population change necessitates that GCs and metrics of population persistence are linked. However, the relationship between GCs and fitness may be highly context-dependent, changing direction, or significance, depending on the GC measure, fitness metric, life history stage, or other intrinsic and extrinsic contexts considered. We examined the relationship between baseline plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels measured at two periods of the breeding season and three metrics of fitness (offspring quality, reproductive output, and adult survival) in female Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Specifically, we investigated whether (1) a relationship between baseline CORT metrics and fitness exists in our population, (2) whether the inclusion of energetic contexts, such as food availability, reproductive investment, or body mass, could alter or improve the strength of the relationship between CORT and fitness, and (3) whether energetic contexts could better predict fitness compared to CORT metrics. Importantly, we investigated these relationships in both natural conditions and under an experimental manipulation of foraging profitability (feather clipping) to determine the influence of an environmental constraint on GC-fitness relationships. We found a lack of relationship between baseline CORT and both short- and long-term metrics of fitness in control and clipped birds. In contrast, loss in body mass over reproduction positively predicted reproductive output (number of chicks leaving the nest) in control birds; however, the relationship was characterized by a low R (5%), limiting the predictive capacity, and therefore the application potential, of such a measure in a conservation setting. Our results stress the importance of ground-truthing GC-fitness relationships and indicate that baseline GCs will likely not be easily employed as conservation biomarkers across some species and life history stages. Given the accumulating evidence of temporally dynamic, inconsistent, and context-dependent GC-fitness relationships, placing effort towards directly measuring fitness traits, rather than plasma GC levels, will likely be more worthwhile for many conservation endeavours.

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A novel technique to measure chronic levels of corticosterone in turtles living around a major roadway

Cited by 56 publications

References 62 publications

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Measuring corticosterone in feathers: Strengths, limitations, and suggestions for the future

Conservation implications of a lack of relationship between baseline glucocorticoids and fitness in a wild passerine

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