A simple method for measuring long-term integrated testosterone levels in men
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Andrology, Diabetes and Endocrinology
- Keywords
- biomonitoring, endogenous steroid levels, integrated matrices, non-invasive, fingernails
- Copyright
- © 2016 Matas et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. A simple method for measuring long-term integrated testosterone levels in men. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2069v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2069v2
Abstract
Steroids play multiple roles in the regulation of development, physiology, reproduction, and behavior. Measuring circulating steroids is especially challenging since concentrations are extremely labile, responding to stressors within minutes. Matrices that integrate long-term steroid levels are therefore valuable as biomarkers of baseline, as well as chronic steroid exposures. Here we report on a simple method to extract and measure accumulated testosterone from human fingernails using commercial EIA kits. Further, we demonstrate known human testosterone sex and age trends. Thus, this method is a potential tool for biomonitoring endogenous as well as exogenous steroid exposure.
Author Comment
This version includes an additional validation using a second antibody for testosterone. It also fixes link issues that were present in the previous references, and line numbers on the left side.