A comparison of recombinant receptor-reporter gene bioassays and a total estrogen enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for the rapid screening of estrogenic activity in natural and waste waters.

In this study, we compared the performance as screening tools of two yeast-based recombinant receptor-reporter gene bioassays with a commercial ELISA kit for measurement of total estrogens. For WWTP effluents there was a very good correlation between the measured total estrogen concentrations (ELISA) and estrogenic activity by the hERα bioassay (r(2)=0.93), but not for the medERα bioassay (r(2)=0.50). For freshwater samples, the correlations between bioassay response and ELISA ES measurements were very good (r(2)>0.95). There was no correlation between bioassay response and ELISA ES measurements for estuarine samples.