The metabolism of adrenosterone in vivo.

The value of the technique of paper chromatography of corticosteroids (1) is well established in view of its application to the study of these compounds in tissue (2), blood (3), urine (4), and enzyme preparations (5). Recent extensions of this chromatographic system to the separation of ketosteroids other than those of the corticosteroid group (6, 7) serve to emphasize the broad utility of this new analytical procedure. A recent study of the paper chromatography of C19and CzI-ketosteroids in ligroinpropylene glycol (7) has demonstrated the adequacy of this system for the resolution of the ketosteroids of urinary origin. The application of this chromatographic method to the study of the metabolism of adrenosterone in man is described below. Of eleven individual urinary ketosteroids recognized, six were isolated in quantity and their identity confirmed by melting point determination and infra-red analysis.