The Catechol Estrogens

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Abstract
The catechol estrogens are relative newcomers to the list of identified metabolites of estradiol and knowledge about them has been accumulating particularly slowly because of the unusual difficulties of working with these exceptionally unstable substances. Their role in neuroendocrine mechanisms has begun to emerge only recently. This brief review attempts to cover the background of the catechol estrogens, focusing particularly on their neuroendocrine implications. Both peripheral and in situ-generated catechol estrogens probably can play a role in neuroendocrine mechanisms and it is the localization of the latter which may confer on it specific actions. The significance of the previously reported effects of the 2-hydroxyestrogens must be considered in the light of the virtual absence of uterotropic activity in these substances. The peripheral actions of estradiol may be the result of estradiol and its estrogenic metabolites estrone and estriol, while the central actions attributed to the hormone are due to its transformation to the catechol estrogens. The ability to realize the central effects of the estrogens without the frequently undesirable peripheral actions associated with these substances would have important and wide ranging applications. The catechol estrogens can no longer be categorized solely as excretory products of the female sex hormone metabolism.