Salivary testosterone determination in studies of child health and development

Measurement of hormones in children's saliva has excited interest because o f numerous potential applications in developmental studies. Although assays of children's saliva for some hormones (e.g., cortisol) are widely availab le and used, the availability and use of assays of children's saliva testos terone is restricted. By adapting a commercially available serum testostero ne kit, our laboratory has developed a reliable, efficient, and highly sens itive procedure for measuring testosterone in children's saliva that does n ot require separation or extraction. The minimum detection limit was 0.8 pg /mL. Intraassay coefficients of variation (CV) were between 3.66 and 6.78% at concentrations 9.25 to 86.41 pg/mL, and interassay CVs were between 5.70 and 6.61% at concentrations of 7.3 to 118.51 pg/mL. The standard curve was highly reproducible (M slope = -0.70 and M-r = 0.99). Method accuracy, det ermined by spike recovery, and linearity, determined by serial dilution, we re 99.20 and 92.80%, respectively. Values from matched serum and saliva sam ples showed strong linear relationships. The assay captured near 99.09% of the range of individual differences in boys' (N = 90) and girls' (N = 85), ages 8-12, AM and PM salivary testosterone levels. This assay can be easily applied to the investigation of testosterone-behavior relations in the con text of studies on child health and development. It may help many child dev elopment researchers improve or expand their research activities. (C) 1999 Academic Press.