As a period of heightened plasticity, puberty may provide a window of opportunity for recalibration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to current conditions. Our group has recently documented evidence for pubertal recalibration of HPA axis reactivity among children internationally adopted as infants from institutions into supportive, well-resourced homes. As a first step at examining potential mechanisms by which puberty may facilitate recalibration of the HPA axis, the current study assessed whether previously-institutionalized (PI) children differed from non-adopted (NA) comparison children in levels of the adrenal steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and in its intra-individual covariation (coupling) with cortisol by adrenal pubertal stage. In an accelerated longitudinal design, 7- to 15-year-olds completed up to 3 annual assessments, which included nurse-conducted pubertal staging and the Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-M). Adrenal (pubic hair) rather than gonadal pubertal stage scores were used in the analysis. Paired salivary cortisol-DHEA samples were available at 60–80 min post-TSST-M. NA and PI children did not differ in DHEA levels, which were higher among children at more advanced pubertal stages (averaged across the sessions) for both groups. For NA children, post-stressor cortisol and DHEA were positively coupled across sessions at all average adrenal pubertal stages. For PI children who were, on average, at earlier adrenal pubertal stages, post-stressor cortisol and DHEA were not coupled, but PI children who were at later pubertal stages demonstrated positive cortisol-DHEA coupling similar to that of the NA children. We suggest that these findings provide insights into processes which may underlie pubertal recalibration of the HPA axis.

作为可塑性增强的时期，青春期可能为下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺 (HPA) 轴重新校准以适应当前状况提供机会之窗。我们的小组最近记录了证据，证明在国际上从机构到资源充足的支持性家庭收养的儿童中，HPA 轴反应性的青春期重新校准。作为检查青春期可能促进 HPA 轴重新校准的潜在机制的第一步，当前的研究评估了先前入院 (PI) 儿童与未收养 (NA) 比较儿童的肾上腺类固醇激素脱氢表雄酮水平是否不同。 DHEA）及其与肾上腺青春期皮质醇的个体内协变（耦合）。在加速纵向设计中，7 至 15 岁的儿童最多完成 3 次年度评估，其中包括护士指导的青春期分期和儿童改良特里尔社会压力测试 (TSST-M)。分析中使用肾上腺（阴毛）而不是性腺青春期分期评分。在 TSST-M 后 60-80 分钟可获得配对的唾液皮质醇-DHEA 样本。NA 和 PI 儿童的 DHEA 水平没有差异，两组的青春期晚期（整个疗程的平均值）儿童的 DHEA 水平更高。对于 NA 儿童，在所有平均肾上腺青春期阶段，应激后皮质醇和 DHEA 在整个疗程中呈正耦合。对于平均处于早期肾上腺青春期的 PI 儿童，应激后皮质醇和 DHEA 不偶联，但处于青春期后期的 PI 儿童表现出与 NA 儿童相似的阳性皮质醇-DHEA 偶联。我们建议这些发现提供了对可能是青春期 HPA 轴重新校准的基础的过程的见解。