Hydrolysis of Conjugates of Neutral Ketosteroids

Abstract

Boiling an aqueous soln. at pH 5 effectively hydrolyzed dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate but did not affect androsterone sulfate. Continuous extraction with ether at pH0.7 and 35oC hydrolyzed these as well as estrone sulfate without affecting glucuronides. Somewhat higher values were obtained for the steroid sulfates when 7.2 [image] HC1 and con-tinuous ether extraction at 35[degree]C was used. Refluxing with 15 vol.% HC1 resulted in a marked loss of the neutral ketosteroids but estrone was quantitatively recovered. The largest quantity of neutral ketosteroids was obtained from urine with 7.2 [image] HCl and continuous extraction with ether. Hydrolysis of urine of normal men by bacterial glucuronidase gave considerably higher values than those which were obtained by continuous ether extraction at pH 0.7, and the sum of these approximated the values obtained when 7.2 [image] HC1 was used. In 2 cases of adrenal tumors the steroid sulfates greatly exceeded the glucuronides, whereas in adrenal hyperplasia this was not true. The large quantity of neutral ketosteroids excreted by the former was comprised largely of dehydroepiandrosterone or dehydroepiandrosterone -like material which apparently was not conjugated with glucuronic acid.