ESPE Abstracts

Background: The androgen receptor (AR) is essential for the development of primary and secondary male characteristics and is activated by its ligand dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Reduced AR activity can cause undervirilization and infertility. We recently developed an assay to test AR function as a ligand-dependent transcriptional activator in human genital skin fibroblasts (GF). So far it is unclear, if AR expression levels correlate with AR function in the male external genital...

Background: In a large fraction of patients with clinically presumed Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, no mutation of the Androgen Receptor gene can be detected. However, established Sanger sequencing techniques of the AR gene are often limited to the coding region.Objective and Hypotheses: To set up a next generation sequencing (NGS) approach of the entire AR locus (including UTRs, exons, introns, up- and downstream regions) for a comprehensive ...

Introduction: Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a 46,XY difference of sex development (DSD) classically caused by mutations in the X-chromosomal androgen receptor (AR) gene. Nevertheless, in over 50% of individuals with clinical AIS no AR coding gene mutation can be found. We previously established an assay (apolipoprotein D (APOD) assay) that measures androgen dependent AR-activity in genital skin fibroblasts (GFs). Using this assay we identified a gro...