Measures of bioavailable serum sex hormone levels in aging Chinese by protein chip.

The purpose of this study was to develop a protein chip technique based on receptor binding assays to measure bioavailable serum sex hormone levels (BSSHL). 224 aging healthy Chinese were investigated to get the referenced values of BSSHL for the first time. In the assays recombined sex hormone receptor proteins were jointed to polysaccharide coated slides to make protein chip, and the dose-dependence curves of sex hormone on chip were prepared. The data showed that this method had good precision (CV < 16%) and accuracy (Bias < 10%), and the sensitivity could reach 1 pmol/L. From the results, BSSHL of men and women declined with aging, but no significant differences were observed. The BSSHL of aging men were higher than those of women. The bioavailable serum androgen level of men was 52-112 pmol/L, women's was 3-70 pmol/L and the whole group was 41.9-81.4 pmol/L. The bioavailable serum estrogen level of men was 0.8-3.0 pmol/L, women's was 1.2-2.5 pmol/L and the whole group was 0.6-2.64 pmol/L. Based on the assays, BSSHL measurement by protein chip can meet the needs of epidemiological studies in terms of speed, accuracy and sample volume required, and was helpful in quantitative assessment of aging people's health.