Effect of Triparanol Pretreatment of Rats on in vitro Adrenal Steroid Production.

Abstract

Adrenal slices from rats pretreated with Triparanol (Mer/29) produce less total blue tetrazolium positive steroids in vitro than do control slices. However, adrenals from Mer/29 treated animals incorporate significantly more progesterone-C14 into cortical hormones. The data indicate that the conversion of desmosterol to progesterone becomes a rate-limiting factor in corticoid biosynthesis in Mer/29 treated animals. There was no evidence that Mer/29 specifically inhibits corticoid synthesis from progesterone.