The use of anti-steroid antibodies in the characterization of steroid receptors.

Antibodies against steroid hormones can be used to eliminate steroid binding to serum proteins and to cellular proteins which are normally not considered to be steroid receptors. Since binding of sex steroids and of some glucocorticoids to their cellular receptor proteins does not appear to be affected by the antibodies, the latter may be used for qualitative and quantitative characterization of the steroidreceptor complexes. The assay method may be simplified by the use of anti-steroid antibodies coupled to solid phases such as Sepharose. A large number of small samples can be processed within 3 to 4 hours. Samples containing about 1 to 5 fmol of receptor-bound 3H steroids may be assayed.