Abstract
ABSTRACT Three midgestation placentas were perfused at laparotomy during fifteen minutes with tracer amounts of [1,2-3H] testosterone [35S] sulphate sodium salt, and metabolites present in the placentas, perfusates and maternal urine specimens were analyzed. Most of the radioactive material administered was present in the placentas and perfusates; approximately 2% of it was recovered from the urine. More than 99.5% of the radioactive material recovered from the placentas and the perfusates was in a water soluble (conjugated) form. No unconjugated testosterone was found in these sources. Radiochemically homogeneous [1,2-3H] testosterone [35S] sulphate was isolated from the placentas, perfusates and urine specimens collected during the first 24 hours of experiment. The isotopic ratio of the conjugate isolated from these sources was very similar to that of the perfused material. Seventy per cent of the double labelled radioactive material recovered from the Day 1 urine samples was radiochemically homogeneous testosterone sulphate. The relative amounts of testosterone sulphate present in the Day 2 and Day 3 urine specimens showed a gradual decrease. This decrease was associated with an increase in tritium to sulphur-35 ratio. From the pooled extracts of all urine specimens, small amounts of exclusively tritium labelled conjugated 5α-androsterone and 5β-androsterone were also isolated. No 17β-oestradiol 17-sulphate was detected in any of the sources studied. It is concluded that little, if any, testosterone sulphate is hydrolyzed by the midgestation human placenta, and that a considerable part of the testosterone sulphate secreted by the foetus is transferred across the placenta to the mother in an unchanged form. The major part of the transferred testosterone sulphate is excreted in the urine; a smaller part of it undergoes hydrolysis with a subsequent metabolism of the steroid moiety.
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