| abstract |
The present invention concerns a method for determining the androgenic activity of a sample, comprising the steps of a) contacting the sample with a cell comprising a luciferase reporter plasmid,a fusion protein comprising a ligand-binding domain of the androgen receptor and a Gal4 DNA-binding domain, said fusion protein being able to bind to binding sites in said luciferase reporter plasmid, a fusion protein comprising an N-terminal region of the androgen receptor and a protein being able to bind to the luciferase gene promoter, and an androgen receptor-interacting protein 3, b) allowing the sample to incubate with said cell, c) lysing said cell, d) measuring the luciferase activity of the lysate, e) comparing the measured luciferase activity to that obtained by repeating the steps a) to d) above except that a control is added instead of the sample, to give the relative luciferase activity of the sample, and f) using the relative luciferase activity to detect or quantify an active androgen in the sample. |