Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state?
Cortisol is one of the main glucocorticoid hormones involved in both the mammalian stress response, and in fat metabolism and energy regulation, making it of increasing interest as a biomarker for stress, health and overall physiological state. However, transient stress responses to animal handling...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4764809 2023-05-15T16:33:38+02:00 Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? Kershaw, Joanna L. Hall, Ailsa J. 2016-02-24 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4764809/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26906193 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4764809/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26906193 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 2016-03-06T01:34:32Z Cortisol is one of the main glucocorticoid hormones involved in both the mammalian stress response, and in fat metabolism and energy regulation, making it of increasing interest as a biomarker for stress, health and overall physiological state. However, transient stress responses to animal handling and sampling may be important sources of measurement artefact when investigating circulating concentrations of this hormone in wildlife. Here, cortisol concentrations were measured in the plasma and, for the first time, in the blubber of live captured adult harbour seals (Phoca vitulina). Plasma cortisol concentrations were positively correlated with capture time, suggesting that they were largely driven by a stress response to the capture event. In contrast, blubber cortisol concentrations were shown not to be significantly affected by capture time and varied significantly by sex and by season, with higher concentrations during natural fasting periods of their life cycle, particularly during the moult. These results suggest that cortisol may play a key role in increased fat metabolism during highly energetically demanding periods, and that blubber concentrations have the potential to be used as physiological state indicators in phocid seals. Text harbour seal Phoca vitulina PubMed Central (PMC) Scientific Reports 6 1 |
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Article Kershaw, Joanna L. Hall, Ailsa J. Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
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Article |
description |
Cortisol is one of the main glucocorticoid hormones involved in both the mammalian stress response, and in fat metabolism and energy regulation, making it of increasing interest as a biomarker for stress, health and overall physiological state. However, transient stress responses to animal handling and sampling may be important sources of measurement artefact when investigating circulating concentrations of this hormone in wildlife. Here, cortisol concentrations were measured in the plasma and, for the first time, in the blubber of live captured adult harbour seals (Phoca vitulina). Plasma cortisol concentrations were positively correlated with capture time, suggesting that they were largely driven by a stress response to the capture event. In contrast, blubber cortisol concentrations were shown not to be significantly affected by capture time and varied significantly by sex and by season, with higher concentrations during natural fasting periods of their life cycle, particularly during the moult. These results suggest that cortisol may play a key role in increased fat metabolism during highly energetically demanding periods, and that blubber concentrations have the potential to be used as physiological state indicators in phocid seals. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kershaw, Joanna L. Hall, Ailsa J. |
author_facet |
Kershaw, Joanna L. Hall, Ailsa J. |
author_sort |
Kershaw, Joanna L. |
title |
Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
title_short |
Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
title_full |
Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - A novel indicator of physiological state? |
title_sort |
seasonal variation in harbour seal (phoca vitulina) blubber cortisol - a novel indicator of physiological state? |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4764809/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26906193 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 |
genre |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4764809/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26906193 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21889 |
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Scientific Reports |
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