title: Measuring fecal testosterone metabolites in spotted hyenas: Choosing the wrong assay may lead to erroneous results.
abstract: Enzyme-immunoassays (EIA) that detect fecal testosterone metabolites (fTM) are powerful tools to monitor gonadal activity non-invasively. However, a challenge with testosterone EIAs might be their potential for cross-reactivities with structurally similar glucocorticoid metabolites. Therefore, we aimed to verify the capability of four different testosterone EIAs to monitor fTM without reflecting changes in adrenocortical activity in spotted hyenas by analyzing fecal samples following testosterone and ACTH challenge tests. We demonstrated that none of the testosterone EIAs is appropriate to measure fTM as all of them showed substantial cross-reactivities to unknown metabolites. Our study underlines the importance of validating androgen EIAs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Reproduction Biology , Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pribbenow
authors.affiliation: b Department of Reproductive Biomedicine , National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Munirka , New Delhi , India.
authors.forename: Tulsidas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Shrivastav
authors.affiliation: a Department of Reproduction Biology , Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dehnhard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D045968:Hyaenidae / Q000378:metabolism*; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone
keywords: ACTH; Non-invasive; cross-reactivity; spotted hyena; testosterone challenge; testosterone metabolites