Quantification of urine 17‐ketosteroid sulfates and their age correlations

Abstract

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid secreted primarily by the adrenal gland and plays an important role as the primary precursor of many important sex steroids. The negative correlation between age and the secretion of DHEA (I) and in its sulfate form (II, DHEA-S) has been documented in human studies. Serum DHEA (I) and/or DHEA-S (II) levels have been associated with central nervous system function, immunity, cardiovascular functions, insulin sensitivity, and body composition.A high-performance liquid chromatography/ion trap mass spectroscopic method with sonic spray ionization (SSI) for the quantification of individual and total urinary 17-ketosteroid sulfates was developed. This quantification method had broad linearity range, low detection limit and high throughput. The amount of 17-KS-S, normalized by creatinine, in urine secreted over 24 hours versus that in early morning urines was found inversely correlated to age for both genders.

Correlation of age and sex with urine dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate level in healthy Thai volunteers

“…Thus far, no study has investigated the correlation between urine DHEAs level and a wide age range; however, Jia et al. reported that the level of 24-h urine 17-ketosteroid sulfate conjugates (DHEA, DHEAs, epiandrosterone-3-β-sulfate, androsterone-3-α-sulfate, and etiocholanol-17-one-3-α-sulfate) normalized by creatinine was negatively correlated with age (30–70 years) for both sexes, and it was highest in individuals aged 30–39 years [ 23 ].…”

“…studied the correlation between DHEAs in 24-h urine and gender. Their analysis found that 24-h secretion amount of DHEAs in urine has significantly higher in males than the same age of females ( P -value ​= ​0.0046) [ 23 ]. In this study, the result demonstrates that there was no sexes difference in median DHEAs and DHEAs/Creatinine for the age groups 20–29, 30–39, and 40–49, while the significant difference in DHEAs/Creatinine was observed in the age groups 50–59 and the significant difference in DHEAs was shown in the age groups >60.…”

“…Although some studies have shown that serum DHEAs concentrations were positively correlated with urine DHEAs excretion [ 20 , 21 ], a few studies have reported on the correlation of urine DHEAs levels with age and sex, particularly with a specific age group [ [21] , [22] , [23] ]. Moreover, the correlation of age and sex with urine DHEAs levels has not yet been investigated in any non-western populations.…”