Plasma cortisol/corticosterone level analysis using qPCR - (May/15/2015 )

Hello,

This question may sound really stupid but i wanted to know if we can analyze plasma cortisol/corticosterone levels from Plasma samples using qPCR? I am aware that we can analyze for microRNAs using qPCR but i want to measure the changes in cortisol/corticosterone levels to determine the stress level of the animal using qPCR.

Is this possible? If yes, could you please direct me to some papers/articles/methods for the same.

Cheers !!

You certainly won't get a direct read-out as qPCR only works for things that can be turned into DNA...