Pituitary-adrenal cortical antagonism to estrogenic stimulation of the uterus of the ovariectomized rat; observations on structural specificity of crystalline steroids.

Abstract

IT WAS demonstrated in an earlier report (Szego and Roberts, 1948) that adrenal cortical hyperactivity, induced by adrenocorticotrophin, had a powerful inhibitory influence on the responsiveness of the castrate uterus to administered estrogen. Attempts to reproduce a similar degree of depression with adrenal cortical extract or with certain pure crystalline steroids which were available at that time met with but partial success. The striking inhibition exerted by adrenocorticotrophin was not duplicated by any of the following: Compound A, testosterone, Up John’s adrenal cortical extract in oil, progesterone, or desoxycorticosterone acetate. The latter two steroids appeared to interfere to some extent with the uterine response to estrogen. However, the degree of inhibition was far short of the virtual obliteration of the response observed with endogenous adrenal cortical hyperactivity induced by adrenocorticotrophin. In an extension of these observations, it has been possible to demonstrate, as described i...