Steroid profiling helps various pathologies to be rapidly
diagnosed. Results from analyses investigating steroidogenic
pathways may be used as a tool for uncovering pathology
causations and proposals of new therapeutic approaches. The
purpose of this study was to address still underutilized application
of the advanced GC-MS/MS platform for the multicomponent
quantification of endogenous steroids. We developed and
validated a GC-MS/MS method for the quantification of
58 unconjugated steroids and 42 polar conjugates of steroids
(after hydrolysis) in human blood. The present method was
validated not only for blood of men and non-pregnant women
but also for blood of pregnant women and for mixed umbilical
cord blood. The spectrum of analytes includes common
hormones operating via nuclear receptors as well as other
bioactive substances like immunomodulatory and neuroactive
steroids. Our present results are comparable with those from our
previously published GC-MS method as well as the results of
others. The present method was extended for corticoids and
17α-hydroxylated 5α/β-reduced pregnanes, which are useful for
the investigation of alternative “backdoor” pathway. When
comparing the analytical characteristics of the present and
previous method, the first exhibit by far higher selectivity, and
generally higher sensitivity and better precision particularly for
17α-hydroxysteroids.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrinopathy in women (with a prevalence of 5-10 %), is characterized by hormonal and metabolic imbalance. Complexity of symptoms of close relatives of women with PCOS and genetic autosomal trait initiated a hypothesis about the existence of a male equivalent of PCOS. Premature alopecia was suggested as one of the signs of a male phenotype of this syndrome. The present study investigated a group of 30 men, in which premature hair loss started before 30 years of age. In all patients, their hormonal profile was determined. It was possible to form two subgroups. The first one showed similar hormonal changes as women with PCOS, the other had either no anomalies in steroid spectrum or just only lower level of sexual hormones binding globulin (SHBG). Both subgroups did not differ in either BMI or age. In all men with premature alopecia insulin tolerance test was also carried out and the occurrence of allele 3 INS VNTR was investigated, which is one of the candidate genes for PCOS. The subgroup with hormonal changes resembling those of women with PCOS showed a significantly higher insulin resistance than the group without these changes. About one third of the premature balding men showed the combination of hormonal shifts and higher insulin resistance. This frequency corresponds to the prevalence of PCOS in women. There was no significant difference between the two subgroups in the occurrence of allele 3 INS VNTR.