Conversion of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate to androst-5-enediol-3-sulfate by soluble extracts of rat testis.

3 H-Androst-5-ene-17-one-3B-pl sulfate is converted to 3B-androst-5-ene-lW-ol-3f3-yl sulfate by soluble extracts of rat testis in the presence of added NAM%2 or NADPH2. The conversion was approximately 4 times greater than the conversion of 3H-androst-5-ene-17-one-3B_ol to 3%androst-5-ene+3@,17&diol under similar incubation conditions. The same extracts converted 3H-androst5-ene-17-one-3@-ol to 3H-androst-5-ene-17-one-3+yl sulfate in the presence of added ATP and Yg++., INTRODUCTION In an earlier report from this laboratory2, iL was demonstrated that soluble enzyme preparations from several endocrine tissues, i.e., rat testis and bovine adrenal cortex, ovary, and corpus luteum, sulfurylate estradiol1?$3. Recent in vivo 3*4*5 and in vitro a,7 studies __I_ _Idemonstrating that steroid sulfates can serve as metabolic intermediates led us to investigate whether the abovementioned preparations also catafyze metabolic interconversions of steroid sulfates. In the present investigation it was demonstrated that these preparations sulfurylate dehydroepiandrosterone and that they convert dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate to androst-5enediol-3-sulfate, Possible relations of these observations to the in vivo conversion of dehydroepi-androsterone and its sulfate to testosterone are discussed.