A study of sterol and steroid synthesis from sodium acetate by human foetal liver preparations

Abstract

Liver preparations from three midgestation human foetuses were incubated with carbon-14 labelled sodium acetate in the presence as well as in the absence of cofactors and attempts were made to isolate cholesterol, pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone in a radiochemically homogeneous form. Tritium labelled internal standards were used to assess procedural losses. Relatively large quantities of carbon-14 labelled sodium acetate (corresponding to 0.95–3.1 % of the material incubated) were converted to radiochemically homogeneous cholesterol in each experiment, whereas all carbon-14 labelled material was dissociated from crystalline pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone. It is concluded that liver preparations of midgestation human foetuses convert considerably large quantities of sodium acetate to cholesterol, but none to steroids.