Data from: Evidence of degradation of hair corticosterone in museum specimens

Researchers increasingly rely on non-invasive physiological indices, such as glucocorticoid (GC) levels, to interpret how vertebrates respond to changes in their environment. Recently, hair GCs have been of particular interest, because they are presumed stable over long periods of storage, which may facilitate the study of large-scale spatial and temporal patterns of stress in mammals. In the current study, we evaluated the stability of hair corticosterone levels in museum specimens, and the potential effects of different museum curation treatments. Using deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) specimens collected from Vancouver Island (11 sites, 82 individuals) over 76 years, we found that specimens collected earlier in the 20th century had lower hair corticosterone than more recently collected specimens. These results suggest that hair hormone levels may not be stable over decades of storage time. We then subjected hair samples collected from white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus, n = 36) to 3 different museum curation treatments, and found that borax lowered hair corticosterone levels relative to control samples, but air drying samples, or treating them with turpentine had no effect. Our results present a source of concern for the use of museum specimens for hair hormone analysis, and for studying long term trends in glucocorticoid levels.

研究者们愈发依赖糖皮质激素（glucocorticoid, GC）水平这类无创生理指标，以解析脊椎动物对环境变化的响应机制。近年来，毛发糖皮质激素愈发受到学界关注，因其被认为在长期储存条件下性质稳定，这或将助力哺乳动物应激反应的大规模时空模式研究。本研究中，我们评估了馆藏标本毛发皮质酮水平的稳定性，以及不同博物馆标本保存处理方式的潜在影响。我们使用了历时76年、从温哥华岛11个采样点收集的82只鹿鼠（Peromyscus maniculatus）馆藏标本，结果发现20世纪早期采集的标本，其毛发皮质酮水平低于近期采集的标本。上述结果表明，毛发激素水平在数十年的储存过程中或许并不稳定。随后，我们对36只白足鼠（Peromyscus leucopus, n=36）的毛发样本开展3种不同的博物馆标本保存处理实验，结果发现相较于对照组样本，硼砂处理会降低毛发皮质酮水平，但风干处理或松节油处理均无显著影响。本研究结果为使用馆藏标本开展毛发激素分析，以及糖皮质激素水平长期趋势研究敲响了警钟。