Development of cortisol circadian rhythm in infancy
Abstract
Background and aims Cortisol is the final product of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. It is secreted in a pulsatile fashion that displays a circadian rhythm. Infants are born without a circadian rhythm in cortisol and they acquire it during their first year of life. Studies do not agree on the age of appearance of the circadian rhythm (varying between 2 weeks till the age of 9 months) nor on whether it is related to the appearance of the sleep-wake circadian rhythm. The object of the present study was to find evidence of the age of appearance of the diurnal rhythm of cortisol and to compare the results obtained by several different analysis methods on a new data set. Design and measures Cortisol was determined in salival samples of 14 normally developing infants who were followed monthly between the ages of 2 and 5 months. The data were analyzed with several previously published analysis methods as well as with Multilevel Analysis (Hierarchical Linear Modeling). Results The previously published analysis methods each produced different results when applied to the current data set. Moreover, our results indicate striking differences between young infants in both age of appearance and stability of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Also, a link was found between the appearance of the sleep-wake circadian rhythm and the cortisol circadian rhythm. An important intraindividual variability in cortisol levels was found even after correcting for the different variables that af…
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Prenatal exposure to maternal stress hormones is linked to temperamental reactivity and stress physiology, likely through epigenetic regulation of gene expression.
“prenatal exposure to maternal stress hormones is linked to temperamental reactivity and stress physiology, likely through epigenetic regulation of gene expression”
From The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity (2011) · cites this paper as de Weerth et al., 2003
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“The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is characterized by a 40–75% increase of salivary cortisol levels, with maximum values occurring about 30 min after awakening (de Weerth et al., 2003; Fries et al., 2009; Kudielka et al., 2006).”
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“Cortisol was determined with an in house competitive RIA (see below), which is insensitive to breast milk and formula contamination (de Weerth et al., 2003a).”
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“Here, most evidence suggests that the development of a stable circadian pattern of cortisol secretion tends to fall into the first half year of life (Price et al., 1983; Spangler, 1991; Antonini et al., 2000), even though with considerable individual differences (De Weerth et al., 2003).”
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“…shown that the wide variance of the age of appearance of the circadian rhythm is due to different analytical working definitions and low sample Chronobiology International frequencies (Antonini et al., 2000; Krieger et al., 1971; Price et al., 1983; Santiago et al., 1996; de Weerth et al., 2003).”
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“Infants acquire the cortisol circadian rhythm during their first year of life (Custodio et al., 2007; de Weerth & van Geert, 2002; de Weerth et al., 2003).”
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“Infants develop a diurnal rhythm that consists of relatively high morning and low evening cortisol levels by three months of age [14,15].”
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“Many infants did not yet show a circadian pattern at both ages, however, supporting de Weerth and colleagues’ (8) finding that there is substantial interindividual variability in the emergence of a diurnal rhythm in cortisol.”
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“This did not affect cortisol levels, as at this age the circadian rhythm is not present [5].”
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“Thus, cortisol should be measured every hour of the day instead of only in the morning (34).”
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Shiftwork and Diurnal Salivary Cortisol Patterns Among Police Officers
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Effects of Fatigue and Sleep Deprivation on Microvascular Anastomoses
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“infants admitted into the hospital [33], immunizations of late preterm infants and control infants were scheduled at parents' discretion and performed between 8:00 a.”
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- Authors
- de Weerth, C., Zijl, R. H., & Buitelaar, J. K.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- ORCID
- Buitelaar, Jan K
- Venue
- Early Human Development
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-08
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 39-52
- ISSN
- 0378-3782 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2112583133
- Cited by
- 248
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 1.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Early Human Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
- Keywords
- cortisol, circadian rhythm, diurnal cycle, infancy, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, salivary cortisol, sleep-wake cycle, age of onset, within-person variability, multilevel analysis
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Biological Clocks, Circadian Rhythm, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Infant, Male, Pregnancy, Saliva, Sleep, Models, Statistical
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