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hormonal activity, and not the names of individual steroids. Synthetic steroids or extracts can be
considered as members of a generic steroid class (androgens, estrogens, progestins), but are distinct
from the natural cognate ligand itself. Synthetic hormones or extracts of biological origin of each class
may also have agonist, antagonist or mixed bioactivity in one or more classes. Therefore, the terms
androgens, estrogens and progestins (or progestagens or gestagens) should be used when referring to
the class of hormones, whereas when a specific natural or synthetic steroid is being used or assayed,
the particular compound must be specified.
Apart from accepted trivial names, steroids should be named according to the systematic nomenclature
of the IUPAC convention on Nomenclature of Steroids (Moss et al Pure & Applied Chemistry
61:1783-1822, 1989) at first mention in a single footnote defining all letter abbreviations.
Subsequently, generic or trivial names or letter abbreviations, but not trade-names, should be used.
Examples of accepted trivial names include: cholesterol, estrone, 17α and 17β estradiol (estradiol is
also acceptably used as the trivial name for 17β estradiol), estriol, aldosterone, androsterone,
etiocholanolone, dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone, 5α dihydrotestosterone, 5β
dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, pregnenolone, progesterone, corticosterone,
deoxycorticosterone, cortisone, and cortisol.
Trivial names may be modified by prefixes or suffixes indicating substituents (as in 17-
hydroxyprogesterone for 17-hydroxy-4-pregnene-3,20-dione), double bonds (as in 7-
dehydrocholesterol for 5,7-cholestadien-3-ol) and epimeric configurations of functional groups
provided the locus of epimerization is indicated (as in 11-epicortisol for 11α21-trihydroxypregn-4-en-
3-one).
Manuscripts Reporting Novel Compounds
Manuscripts describing experiments with new compounds must provide their chemical structures. For
known compounds, the source and/or literature reference to the chemical structure and characterization
must be provided.
Validation of Data and Statistical Analysis
Assay validation: Bioassay and radioimmunoassay potency estimates should be accompanied by an
appropriate measure of the precision of these estimates. For bioassays, these usually will be the
standard deviation, standard error of the mean, coefficient of variation, or 95% confidence limits. For
both bioassays and radioimmunoassays, it is necessary to include data relating to within-assay and
between-assay variability. If all relevant comparisons are made within the same assay, the latter may
be omitted. Authors should be aware that the precision of a measurement depends upon its position on
the dose-response curve.
In presenting results for new assays, it is necessary to include data on the following: 1) within-assay
variability; 2) between-assay variability; 3) slope of the dose-response curve; 4) mid-range of the
assay; 5) least-detectable concentration (concentration resulting in a response two standard deviations
away from the zero dose response); 6) data on specificity; 7) data on parallelism of standard and
unknown and on recovery; and 8) comparison with an independent method for assay of the compound.
When radioimmunoassay kits are utilized or hormone measurements are conducted in other than the
authors' laboratories and the assay is central to the study, data regarding performance characteristics
should be included.
Pulse analysis: Data from studies of pulsatile hormone secretion should be analyzed using a validated,
objective pulse detection algorithm. The algorithm used should require that false-positive rates of
pulse detection be defined in relation to the measurement error of the data set being analyzed, and the
methods used to determine the measurement error should be described. The author(s) also should
describe the methods used: 1) to deal with missing or undetectable values; 2) to determine peak
frequency, interpeak interval, and pulse amplitude; and 3) for statistical comparisons of peak
parameters.
Data analysis: It is the author's responsibility to document that the results are reproducible and that the
differences found are not due to random variation. No absolute rules can be applied, but in general