steroid metabolism screen

http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/ieg/group-molecular-endocrinology/index.html

Steroids control the differentiation and proliferation processes of cells and tissues. They participate in the regulation of apoptosis, bone remodelling and neuroregeneration. Severe diseases are caused by monogenic mutations with loss of function of steroid pathway proteins. But defects in steroid metabolism contribute as well to the pathogenesis of many different multifactorial diseases like cancer, diseases of cartilage and bone or neurological diseases. The main focus of the steroid screen is the identification of new animal models for human steroid-related diseases therewith supporting the development of their future medical treatment.

• The key steroids corticosterone, testosterone, and androstenedione will be quantified from mouse plasma by high-throughput LC-MS/MS technology. This validated method has been published in Nature Protocols.

• There is the possibility to quantify 163 endogenous metabolites at the Metabolomic Platform of the Genome Analysis Center (GAC): Metabolites include: amino acids, hexoses, glycerophospholipides, sphingomyelins and acylcarnitines.

For very interesting studies we can further quantify dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in mouse plasma using competitive ELISA technique in combination with a special purification protocol.

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