STUDIES OF URINARY CORTICOSTEROID BY A METHOD PERMITTING ANALYSIS OF STEROIDS POORLY SOLUBLE IN WATER.

Abstract

MEASUREMENT of urinary corticosteroid by the method of Daughaday and co-workers (1) for estimation of formaldehydeforming steroids or by the method of Talbot et al. (2) for copper-reducing substances involves partition of the urinary residue between benzene and water. Since only the steroids in the water fractions are measured, those corticosteroids which have solubility properties similar to those of desoxycorticosterone and are poorly soluble in water are not measured by these methods. The phosphomolybdic acid reduction method of Heard, Sobel, and Venning (3) and the Tompsett and Oastler (4) modification of the method of Talbot et al. permit determination of water-insoluble steroids. However, the possibility of nonspecificity for these procedures which determine reducing power is considered greater than for the periodic acid oxidation method (5). Therefore, a method has been developed which measures the formaldehyde formed by periodic acid oxidation in a solvent permitting solution of steroids poorly soluble in water, and thus permitting recovery of a formaldehyde-forming material in human urine following administration of desoxycorticosterone. It is similar to the method described by Corcoran and Page (6); and since it measures those steroids which are water-soluble as well as those which are poorly soluble in water, the material determined is called the “total corticosteroid.” That material which is passed from benzene to water by a technic similar to that of Daughaday et al. (1) is called the “water-soluble corticosteroid,” and that material which remains in the benzene phase is called “corticosteroid poorly soluble in water.” This report concerns studies of the excretion of the “total corticosteroid” and in some instances of the “water-soluble corticosteroid” by normal adults. The subsequent report (7) concerns the excretion of these materials by subjects with adrenal insufficiency.