The excretion of allotetrahydrocortisol in human urine

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Abstract
A reducing substance was noticed on chromatograms of urine extracts which had an Rf just greater than that of 3[alpha]11[beta]:17[alpha]:21-tetrahydroxy-5[beta]-pregnan-20-one. It was almost invariably present in urine from normal subjects, and from patients with various forms of hyperadrenalism, but absent from patients with Addison''s disease or those who had undergone adrenalectomy, unless the latter were treated with cortisone. Derivatives were prepared of the reducing substance alter isolation for chromatograms, in parallel with known steroids, and identified by means of chromato-graphic mobility, color reactions, and spectra in sulfuric acid. In all respects the substance was found to be identical with 3[alpha]:11[beta]:17[alpha] :21-tetrahydroxy-5[alpha]-pregnan-20-One. Evidence was obtained that the reducing substance is a normal metabolite of hydrocortisone and cortisone in man, previously unrecognized because of its similarity to its 5[beta]-epimer in many respects. This modifies some of the earlier conclusions of Dorfman (1954a). Further work is needed to elucidate some unusual features of the excretion rate of the reducing substance in women suffering from various forms of adrenal virilism and hirsutism.