URINARY PREGNANETRIOL OF TESTICULAR ORIGIN*

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Abstract
The daily administration of 5000 I.U. of chorionic gonadotropin to 9 men with functioning testes resulted in a rise in the urinary excretion of pregnane-3[alpha], 17[alpha],20[alpha]-triol which averaged 1.3 mg. per day on the third and fourth days of treatment. This increase was significantly greater than the usual day-to-day variation. In 1 man with Addison''s disease the elevation in pregnanetriol excretion was 1 to 1.5 mg. In a male eunuchoid and in 2 women (one ovariectomized and the other in the pre-ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle), pregnanetriol excretion was not influenced by treatment with chorionic gonadotropin. These results indicate that the pregnanetriol increment was derived from the testes and not the adrenal cortex. A portion of the urinary pregnanetriol of normal men may accordingly be assumed to be of testicular origin. It is suggested that the testicular pregnanetriol was a metabolic derivative of 17[alpha]-hydroxyprogesterone, which is probably an intermediary in the biosynthesis of testosterone.