Measuring Urinary 6-Sulphatoxymelatonin in Humans

Melissa A St Hilaire; Steven W Lockley

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-2593-4_4

Measuring Urinary 6-Sulphatoxymelatonin in Humans

Methods Mol Biol. 2022:2550:21-28. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2593-4_4.

Authors

Melissa A St Hilaire^{1

2}, Steven W Lockley^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
² Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. slockley@hms.harvard.edu.
⁴ Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. slockley@hms.harvard.edu.
⁵ Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. slockley@hms.harvard.edu.

PMID: 36180673
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2593-4_4

Abstract

The pineal melatonin rhythm provides a robust reference signal for the timing of the endogenous human circadian system. The rhythm in the major urinary metabolite of melatonin, 6-sulphatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), is highly correlated with plasma melatonin and provides a noninvasive method to measure circadian phase, particularly in field-based studies. In this chapter, we describe the protocol for collecting urinary aMT6s and the method used to calculate the acrophase, or peak, time as a circadian phase marker.

Keywords: 6-sulphatoxymelatonin; Circadian; Human; Melatonin; Urine.

MeSH terms

Biomarkers / urine
Circadian Rhythm
Humans
Melatonin* / analogs & derivatives
Melatonin* / metabolism
Urinary Tract* / metabolism

Substances

Biomarkers
6-sulfatoxymelatonin
Melatonin