Baseline Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate Levels Research Articles

Serum Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate Levels Predict Longevity in Men: 27‐Year Follow‐Up Study in a Community‐Based Cohort (Tanushimaru Study)

To determine whether serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels could predict longevity in residents. Prospective community-based cohort study. Community. Nine hundred forty subjects (396 men, 544 women; aged 21 to 88) underwent a health examination in 1978. Serum DHEAS levels were measured according to radioimmunoassay at baseline in all subjects, and subjects were followed periodically until 2005. Baseline DHEAS levels were higher in men than in women and decreased with age in both sexes. In a Cox proportional hazards model, age, DHEAS (inversely), blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose were significantly associated with shorter longevity in men but not in women. Of these variables, high DHEAS levels in men were the strongest predictor of longevity (beta=-2.032, hazard ratio=0.131, 95% confidence interval=0.029-0.584 in the Cox proportional hazards model after adjustment for age). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve, stratified according to tertiles of DHEAS levels, in men after adjustments for age, systolic blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose showed significantly (log-rank stat =10.6; P<.001) greater longevity in the highest group (200 microg/dL) than in the moderate (130-199 microg/dL) or lowest groups (129 microg/dL). This 27-year study in a community-based cohort indicated that DHEAS level may be a predictor of longevity in men, independent of age, blood pressure, and plasma glucose.

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA‐S) and Alzheimer's dementia in older subjects

We investigated the association of serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) and impairment in selected cognitive domains (memory, language, attention and working memory) in 158 patients (75.5+/-6.7 years, 46 men) with first-diagnosed probable DAT and in 158 age- and sex-matched controls. As secondary goal, we evaluated whether DHEA-S baseline levels were associated with cumulative 6-year mortality. A negative correlation between DHEA-S levels and age was observed (R=-0.25, p<0.001). Age-stratified analysis did not show significant differences of DHEA-S levels between DAT patients and controls. No significant association was found between DHEA-S levels and impairment in selected cognitive domains. Cox regression analysis showed that baseline DHEA-S levels were not associated with cumulative 6-year mortality. In a sample of newly-diagnosed DAT patients, we did not find significant association between presence of DAT or impairment in cognitive domains and DHEA-S levels; baseline DHEA-S levels are not associated with cumulative mortality in patients and controls.

A possible link between exercise-training adaptation and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate- an oldest-old female study

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the level of salivary dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) and the magnitude of adaptation to exercise training in insulin sensitivity for aged females. A group of 16 females, aged 80-93 years old, was divided into 2 groups according to their baseline DHEA-S levels: Lower Halves (N = 8) and Upper Halves (N = 8), and participated in a 4-month exercise intervention trial. Insulin response with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), cholesterol, blood pressure (BP), motor performance, and DHEA-S were determined at baseline and 4 months after the training program. Glucose tolerance and body mass index (BMI) remained unchanged with training for both groups. Insulin, fasted cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, reaction time, and locomotive function were significantly lowered by training only in the Upper Halves group. Changes in the area under curve of insulin (IAUC) were negatively correlated with the baseline DHEA-S level (R= - 0.60, P < 0.05). The current study provides the first evidence that oldest-old subjects with low DHEA-S level appear to be poor responders to exercise-training adaptations.

A genetic study of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate measured before and after a 20-week endurance exercise training program: The HERITAGE Family Study

Familial aggregation and possible major gene effects were evaluated for the baseline serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) level and the change in DHEAS in response to a 20-week exercise training program in a sample of 481 individuals from 99 Caucasian families who were sedentary at baseline and who participated in the HERITAGE Family Study. Baseline DHEAS levels were not normally distributed, and were therefore logarithmically transformed and adjusted for the effects of age and sex prior to genetic analysis. The DHEAS response to training was computed as the simple difference, post-training minus baseline, and was adjusted for the baseline DHEAS level, age, and sex. Maximal (genetic and familial environmental) heritabilities (using a familial correlation model) reached 58% and 30% for the baseline and the response to training, respectively. Our estimate for the baseline is generally in agreement with previous reports, suggesting that the magnitude of the familial effect underlying this phenotype in these sedentary families is similar to that in the general population. However, segregation analysis showed no evidence for a multifactorial familial component in data for either the baseline or the response to training. Rather, a major additive gene controlling the baseline was found. For the response to training in the complete sample, transmission of the major effect from parents to offspring was ambiguous, but in a subset of 56 "responsive" families (with at least 1 family member whose response to training was greater than 1 standard deviation) this major effect was Mendelian in nature. The putative major genes accounted for 50% and 33% of the variance for the baseline and the response to training, respectively. The novel finding in this study is that the baseline DHEAS level and the change in DHEAS in response to training may be influenced by major gene effects.

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate does not predict cardiovascular death in postmenopausal women. The Rancho Bernardo Study.

High levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) appear to be associated with a reduced risk of fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) in men. We examined the association between baseline DHEAS levels and the 19-year CVD and ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality rates in 942 postmenopausal women free of known heart disease at baseline. The 199 CVD deaths and 102 IHD deaths were not related to baseline DHEAS levels. DHEAS was not related to body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, or family history of coronary heart disease, but significantly higher DHEAS levels were found in women who had elevated total or HDL cholesterol or blood pressure, were current smokers, or were nonusers of estrogen replacement therapy. After we adjusted for age, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, estrogen replacement therapy, obesity, fasting plasma glucose, and family history of heart disease, the relative risk of fatal CVD and IHD was 1.11 (95% confidence interval, 0.81 to 1.23) and 0.92 (95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 1.17), respectively, for a 50-microgram/dL decrease in DHEAS. Although higher DHEAS levels were associated with several major CVD risk factors, they were unrelated to the risk of fatal CVD in women.

A Prospective Study of Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate and Cognitive Function in an Older Population: The Rancho Bernardo Study

To determine whether low plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels predict poor cognitive function in the elderly. A prospective, population-based study with periodic clinical evaluations and 100% follow-up for vital status. Rancho Bernardo, California 270 men and 167 women (80% of surviving, local, age-eligible subjects) from the Rancho Bernardo cohort who had plasma obtained for DHEAS assays in 1972 to 1974 and screening for dementia in 1988 to 1991. DHEAS levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. There were five interviewer-administered standard screening tests of cognitive function: Mini-Mental Status Examination, Buschke selective reminding test, Trails B, category fluency, and Heaton Visual Reproduction test. DHEAS levels were higher in men than women and decreased with age in both sexes. There were no significant differences in age-adjusted DHEAS levels in the percent of men or women with categorically impaired performance on any test. When analyzed as a continuous variable, DHEAS levels were significantly correlated with only one test, the Bushke, and only in women. Low baseline DHEAS levels were not associated with any mention of dementia on death certificates or with non-participation of survivors. Low levels of DHEAS predicted mortality in men more than in women such that men were more likely to have died before cognitive function testing than women. The single DHEAS-memory association, restricted to women, is most likely to be spurious, consequent to multiple comparisons. We cannot exclude a true effect of low DHEAS, restricted to women and reflecting their better survival than men.