The interest in supplementation with testosterone precursors rose to new levels after Mark McGwire disclosed the use of androstenedione (and creatine) during his quest to overtake the 37-year-old home run record of Roger Maris. Banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee (USOC), and the National Football League, androstenedione, an immediat...

The gonadal hormone testosterone (T) regulates aggression across a wide range of vertebrate species. Recent evidence suggests that the adrenal prohormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may also play an important role in regulating aggression. DHEA can be converted into active sex steroids, such as T and estradiol (E(2)), within the brain. Previous studies show that circulating DHEA levels displa...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between age- and gender-adjusted dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels and low-dose adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation in assessing the integrity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, in patients who were at risk of HPA insufficiency, including those currently being treated with glucocorticoids. METHODS Forty-six particip...

OBJECTIVE Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and Dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) are the most abundant steroid hormones in the body. Recently, DHEA-S has gained interest as an antidepressant substance, with positive effects on autoimmune disease such as lupus and ulcerative colitis, as well as obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Its effect on insulin resistance is also assu...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an abundant circulating prohormone in humans, with a variety of reported actions on central and peripheral tissues. Despite its abundance, the functions of DHEA are relatively unknown because common animal models (laboratory rats and mice) have very low DHEA levels in the blood. Over the past decade, we have obtained considerable evidence from avian studies demo...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a C-19 adrenal steroid precursor to the gonadal steroids. In humans, circulating levels of DHEA, as its sulfated conjugate, are high at puberty and throughout early adulthood but decline with age. Dietary supplementation to maintain high levels of DHEA purportedly has beneficial effects on cognitive memory, the immune system, and fat and carbohydrate metabolism....

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid produced by the human adrenal gland. Administration of pharmacological doses of DHEA to rats changes expression of many genes, including the cytochrome P450 family members CYP4A1 and CYP3A23. It is known that induction of CYP4A expression by DHEA requires the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR(alpha)). In the current study, PPAR(alp...

D (DHEA) was isolated in urine in 1934, and DHEA 3b-sulfate (DHEAS) was identified 10 years later (1, 2). It took another decade to identify DHEA and DHEAS in peripheral blood (3, 4). More recently, fatty acid esters of DHEA, testosterone, and estradiol (5) were isolated from a variety of tissues, particularly fat (6), and their presence in circulation (5). In 1981, Corpéchot et al. (7) reporte...

The biological role of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its less active sulphated conjugate DHEAS was investigated in two experiments using Yucatan miniature swine. In experiment 1, plasma levels of both DHEA(S) among males were greater than female pigs that ranged in age from 0.3 to 84 mo old (P < 0.0001). In males, DHEA(S) were related inversely to serum triglycerides; DHEA was positively re...

The plasma levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfated form (DHEAS) decline approximately 80% between the ages of 25 and 75 yr. Muscle mass and strength also decrease with aging. Published data on the effects of DHEA replacement on muscle mass and strength are conflicting. The goals of this study were to determine whether DHEA replacement increases muscle mass and strength and/or e...