Abstract
It has been postulated that the increased rate of corticosteroid formation in the adrenal gland after corticotrophin stimulation is due to an increase in the rate of formation of NADPH or an increase in the availability of a corticosteroid precursor (Haynes & Berthet, 1957; Koritz & Peron, 1958). It has also been shown that adrenal tissue has a high level of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase which generates NADPH (Kelly, Nielson, Johnson & Vestling, 1955). In this communication we would like to present evidence that in the human adrenal gland, exogenous NADPH stimulates cortisol synthesis in vivo. The patients were all cases of advanced breast cancer with widespread metastases undergoing bilateral oophorectomy and adrenalectomy. In nine of them 2 μc of [7α-3H]pregnenolone was injected via the inferior phrenic artery and the adrenal venous blood was collected for 12 min. after the injection. In four patients, 2 μc of radioactive pregnenolone
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