Analysis of endogenous cortisol concentrations in the hair of rhesus macaques (2006)

Davenport, M. D., Tiefenbacher, S., Lutz, C. K. et al.

Abstract

We describe the development and validation of a simple procedure for measuring cortisol concentrations in the hair of rhesus macaques. Our results confirm the specificity of the procedure for cortisol, show that proximal and distal segments of hair do not differ in their cortisol concentration, and demonstrate that a significant and prolonged stressful experience produces a significant increase in hair cortisol.This new procedure should be valuable for assessing baseline HPA activity in nonhuman primates over relatively long periods of time, and also for monitoring chronic stress that might be associated with various experimental manipulations.