THE ACTION OF HUMAN PROSTATE SLICES ON α-ESTRADIOL AND ESTRONE1

Abstract

DURING the course of an investigation into the metabolism of estrogens in the prostate gland, it was observed that slices of normal human prostate, suspended in a Ringer-phosphate-glucose medium containing either estrone or α-estradiol, were capable of causing the disappearance of a large proportion of the estrogen from the medium. In attempting to account for the fate of estrone, we found that the amount of the estrogen which disappeared from the medium could be completely recovered from the slices by extraction of the latter with ethanol and ether. There was therefore no net destruction of estrone by the prostate slices. The removal of the estrogen from the medium and its retention by the slices appears not to be a specific metabolic process, since slices of prostate or of rat liver previously heated to 100° C, possessing no respiratory activity, were equally capable of causing the removal of estrone or α-estradiol from the medium.