METABOLITES OF TRITIATED TESTOSTERONE IN HEALTHY MEN

Abstract

Tracer doses of tritiated testosterone were injected into four healthy men, followed by urine collection and by an assay for estrone, estradiol, androsterone, etiocholanolone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and Δ16-androstenol, and by an assay for radioactivity in each of these fractions. The androstenol fraction contained very little tritium, which indicated that most of it was not derived from the miscible testosterone pool. Maximum testosterone production rates were calculated from the urinary estrone and estradiol data, the results indicating testosterone turnovers of 1 to 3 mg per day. Comparison with testosterone production rates for healthy men, which were reported by other investigators using different methods, indicated that most, if not all, of the estrone and estradiol produced by the four subjects was derived from the miscible testosterone pool.