| abstract |
The present invention provides two general protocols by which a substance may be identified and characterized as an estrogen agonist and/or an estrogen antagonist. The protocols are in-vitro methods which utilize estrogen dependent cells in culture and a medium comprising an inhibitor endogenous to the sera of adult humans which is able to prevent the proliferation of cultured cells in-vitro. The methodology is rapid, reproducible, accurate and provides the major advantage of being able to screen large numbers of substances for their primary or secondary side effects in a large variety of medical and environmental applications. |