Extraction of Radioactive Estrogens and Metabolites from Small Amounts of Human or Animal Tissues Excised Following Intravenous Administration of 6,7-3H-17β-Estradiol

Abstract

1. A method is described, based on successive solvent extractions, for the essentially quantitative separation of estrogens from small amounts of tissue. The procedure is simple and rapid, and successfully removes the large amount of triglycerides present in fatty tissues. 2. Good recovery (mean, 98%) of added estradiol in the estrogen fractions was experienced during recovery studies. When the method was applied to tissues from subjects injected pre-operatively with 6,7-³H-17β-estradiol, good recovery (mean, 94.5%) of total tissue tritium was obtained; while most (mean, 83.2%) of this recovered radioactivity was found in the estrogen fraction, a significant proportion (mean, 12.3%) was often present as water-soluble metabolites, possibly estrogen conjugates.