38 T. F. Gallagher 



the endogenous production can be disregarded without error 

 since it is very small in comparison with the amount of carrier 

 added. The values obtained are shown in Table I. 



Similar experiments have been performed wdth a variety of 

 steroid hormones and their metabolites. Adrenal as well as 

 gonadal hormones have been studied and the general applica- 

 bility of the procedure has been established. It is of course 

 clear that these investigations constitute merely the initial 

 attempts and that they have raised more questions than they 

 have answered. We believe, however, that continued study 

 of these transformations will bring into sharper focus the 

 hazy outlines of the changes the steroid hormones undergo 

 during their passage through the body, and that this know- 

 ledge will in turn lead us to a better understanding of their 

 role in the life process. 



REFERENCES 



Block, K. (1945). J. biol. Chem., 157, 661. 



Bloch, K., and Rittenberg, D. (1943). J. hiol. Chem., 149, 505. 



Callow, N. H., Callow, R. K., and Emmens, C. W. (1938). Biochem. 



J., 32, 1312. 

 DoBRiNER, K., Kritchevsky, T. H., Fukushima, D. K., Lieberman, 



S., Gallagher, T. F., Hardy, J. D., Jones, R. N., and Cilento, 



G. (1949). Science, 109, 260. 

 Dobriner, K., Lieberman, S., and Rhoads, C. P. (1948). J. hiol. 



Chem., 172, 241. 

 Dobriner, K., and Lieberman, S. (1950). In Gordon, E. S., A Sym- 

 posium on Steroid Hormones, p. 46. Madison, Wis.: University of 



Wisconsin Press. 

 Lieberman, S., Dobriner, K., Hill, B. R., Fieser, L. F., and Rhoads, 



C. P. (1948). J. biol. Chem., 172, 263. 



DISCUSSION 



Boscott: Have you studied the metabolism of oestrogens? Have you 

 ooked at the phenolic acids, the steroid phenols? 



Gallagher: No. Dr. Dobriner has just begun some human experi- 

 ments with the isotopically-labelled oestrogens, but these are still in the 

 exploratory stages. 



Boscott: Recently I looked up the literature on the metabolism of 

 progesterone in monkeys and chimpanzees, and I was very surprised 

 to find that rhesus monkeys behave very differently from chimpanzees. 

 Chimpanzees excrete pregnanediol in their urine and rhesus monkeys 



