Advanced Methods for the Analysis of Testosterone

Abstract

Testosterone is the principal endogenous androgenic–anabolic steroid in humans. The levels of testosterone in the human body are correlated with many hormonal disorders (hypogonadism, impotence, etc) mostly in men, and with many types of diseases such as: prostate cancer, metabolic syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and so on. Testosterone is extensively used among sportsmen willing to increase strength, aggressiveness, and recovery; making it the most commonly reported substance in steroid abuse. Fast, easy and cheap methods for the evaluation of testosterone are extremely needed in clinics and hospitals. This review is dedicated to surveying recent determination methods of testosterone from different biological samples such as: serum, saliva, plasma, urine or fingernail samples. After a brief description of the role of this steroid hormone in the biomedical field, various types of determination methods are described. The most important methods are immunoassays, liquid chromatography tandem massspectrometry and electrochemical methods. Different types of sensors were designed for the rapid assessment of testosterone: immunosensors, biosensors, stochastic or multimode sensors. One can conclude that to date, the available methods of analysis can cover a wide concentration range, able to detect testosterone from children`s saliva, where the levels are the lowest (using stochastic sensors), to whole blood, where electrochemical, immunological and chromatographic methods can be used.