Steroid Hormone Formation by Testes of a Male Pseudohermaphrodite

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Abstract
Labial testes were obtained at surgery from a male pseudohermaphrodite after 3 days of treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The testes were sliced and incubated with acetate-1-14C. The followihg radioactive steroids were identified and measured by reverse isotope dilution and characterized for radiochemical purity: 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-pregnen-20-one (pregnenolone), progesterone, 17-hydroxy-Δ4-pregnene-3,20-dione (17-hydroxyprogesterone), 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-androsten-17-one (DHA), Δ4-androstene-3,17-dione, testosterone, estradiol- 17β, and estrone. The synthesis in vitro of all steroids was augmented by human chorionic gonadotropin. Androgens were the major radioactive products found, testosterone being the principal steroid synthesized in vitro. Measurements of testosterone and androstenedione concentrations in spermatic venous blood were found to be in similar ratio to in vitro production. Urine and peripheral blood contained amounts of testosterone usually found in normal adult males. Incomplete virilization of this patient does not seem to have been due to an abnormality of testicular steroid hormone production. Steroid biosynthesis by the Leydig cells of this testis preparation was similar in some respects to the pattern of biosynthesis found with human ovarian stroma, a result which is in keeping with a similar developmental origin proposed for the steroidogenic elements of these tissues.

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