Comparison of urinary levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine between young females with and without depressive symptoms during different menstrual phases.

This study aimed to clarify the association between depressive symptoms and a marker of oxidative stress‑induced DNA damage in young females. Since the menstrual cycle may confound or modify this association depressive symptoms and urinary levels of 8‑hydroxy‑2ʼ deoxyguanosine (8‑OHdG were evaluated during each menstrual phase. A total of 57 female fourth‑year students (aged 21.6±0.8 from a Japanese health science university were studied. The menstrual cycle was divided into 3 phases: menstrual (days 1 to 3 after the onset of menses; proliferative (days 13 to 15; and secretory (days 24 to 26. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the self‑rating depression scale (SDS. Positive depressive symptoms were defined as a score of 53 or more during 2 different menstrual phases. The association between the presence of depressive symptoms and 8‑OHdG levels adjusting for the men‑ strual cycle was examined by two‑way analysis of variance with the menstrual cycle (menstrual pro‑ liferative and secretory phases as the within‑individual factor. The menstrual cycle did not show a significant correlation with urinary 8‑OHdG levels. On the other hand the menstrual cycle‑adjusted 8‑OHdG level was significantly higher in those with depressive symptoms (7.01ng/mL than in those without them (3.98ng/mL. The ROC curve analysis showed that urinary 8‑OHdG levels had reason‑ ably high discriminative performance throughout all the menstrual cycles (0.73-0.81; all �＜0.05. These results indicated the presence of oxidative stress in subjects with depressive symptoms indepen‑ dent of the menstrual cycle.