Cortisol is extracted from the adrenal cortex. It is an adrenocortical hormone with z-strong effect on carbohydrate metabolism, that is, it belongs to a kind of glucocorticoid. Cortisol is sometimes used to refer specifically to basic "stress hormones". Cortisol is passed through 11 in adrenal cortical mitochondria β- Hydroxylase is produced by 11 deoxycortisol. Cortisol can also pass 11- β- Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11)- β- The function of hydrosteroid (dehydrogena SE) becomes cortisol.
It is proved that occupational stress can lead to the increase of cortisol secretion. Occupational stress can be accepted and integrated by the central nervous system as a stress signal and transmitted to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus receives stimulation signals. The increase of corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from the pituitary promote the synthesis and release of cortisol At present, the biological matrix for measuring the content of endogenous cortisol in human body mainly includes blood, saliva, urine and hair. Most of cortisol in serum binds to corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) and albumin, and free cortisol accounts for only 3% ~ 5%. Therefore, the determination of serum cortisol is greatly affected by factors such as liver function and pregnancy; 24-hour urine free cortisol is difficult to collect and measure in the process of sample collection.
Studies have shown that saliva is highly correlated with the content of cortisol in blood. Salivary cortisol mainly exists in the form of free cortisol, and the extraction method is simple The specimen is easy to obtain. However, due to the low content of cortisol in saliva, the requirements for detection equipment and technology are higher. At present, the main analytical methods of cortisol include radioimmunoassay net, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.