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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: clinchem.2008.110262v1 55/3/519    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kushnir, M. M. Articles by Bergquist, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kushnir, M. M. Articles by Bergquist, J.

Steroid Profiles in Ovarian Follicular Fluid from Regularly Menstruating Women and Women after Ovarian Stimulation

¹ ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Salt Lake City, UT; ² Analytical Chemistry/Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; ³ Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden; ⁴ Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Donetsk State Medical University, Donetsk, Ukraine; ⁵ Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; ⁶ Division of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, University Hospital at Huddinge, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.

^aAddress correspondence to this author at: ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology, 500 Chipeta Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108. Fax (801) 584-5207; e-mail kushnmm{at}aruplab.com.

Background: Information on the concentrations of steroids in ovarian follicular fluid (FF) from regularly menstruating (RM) women has been limited because of the absence of methods for the simultaneous quantification of multiple steroids in small volumes of FF. We studied steroid profiles in FF during the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and after ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF), and compared concentrations with published values obtained by immunoassay (IA).

Methods: We used liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to measure 13 steroids in 40-µL aliquots of FF samples from 21 RM women and from 5 women after ovarian stimulation for IVF. Relationships between concentrations of steroids and their ratios (representations of the enzyme activities) were evaluated within and between subgroups.

Results: The concentrations of testosterone (Te), androstenedione (A4), and estradiol (E2) measured by LC-MS/MS were lower than those previously reported in studies with IAs. In RM women, androgens were the most abundant class of steroids, with A4 being the major constituent. The concentrations of 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP), total androgens, and estrogens were 200- to 1000-fold greater in FF than in serum. Compared with RM women, FF samples from women undergoing ovarian stimulation had significantly higher concentrations of E2 (P = 0.021), pregnenolone (P = 0.0022), 17OHP (P = 0.0007), and cortisol (F) (P = 0.0016), and significantly higher ratios of F to cortisone (P = 0.0006), E2 to estrone (P = 0.0008), and E2 to Te (P = 0.0013).

Conclusions: The data provide the first MS-based concentration values for 13 steroids in ovarian FF from RM women, from estrogen- and androgen-dominant follicles, and from women after ovarian stimulation for IVF.