Serum Lipid and Estrogenic Effects

THE profound changes in the serum lipids resulting from estrogen administration to men and women with coronary heart disease have been documented in several laboratories.1-6 But these presumably "favorable " alterations have been offset by undesirable estrogenic side-effects, especially in middle-aged men.3'4 Among many measures suggested to avoid the side-effects, including very low estrogen dosages,7 intermittent estrogen administration,8 and various androgen plus estrogen combinations,9 the most promising appeared to be the use of synthetic analogs of steroidal and nonsteroidal estrogens, which might retain significant lipidshifting potency and yet lack estrogenicity. Among many estrogen analogs synthesized in the laboratories of G. D. Searle & Co. one, 3-methoxy-16a-methyl-1, 3, 5(10)-estratriene-16,3, 17/3-diol (Manvene), showed lipidshifting effects in the rabbit and the chick, anti-atherogenic effects in the chick, but only slight estrogenic activity when tested in mouse uterine growth or rat vaginal smear assays.10 The results of subacute and chronic