Stress and stress-related alterations, including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, are associated with childhood obesity and related co-morbidities. However, very little is known about the sequence of events that underpin obesity-associated conditions in children.

A recent study by Finken et al. tested the hypothesis that glucocorticoids have a role in this and are central in the development of childhood hypertension. The group collected spot urine samples from overweight hypertensive, overweight non-hypertensive and non-overweight non-hypertensive populations. Urine spots were subject to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for cortisol and corticosterone metabolites.

These data showed that the different patient groups had no sex-specific patient outcomes. Also, they demonstrated that the overweight hypertensive cohort showed elevations in the excretion of 5α-reduced metabolites when compared with the overweight non-hypertensive subjects. This work supports a model in childhood obesity-associated hypertension that is dependent upon the increased metabolism but impaired clearance of glucocorticoids.

Read the full article in Endocrine Connections 11 e220130