Urinary dehydroepiandrosterone in late toxemia of pregnancy

Abstract

Reduced average urinary excretion of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in 24 hours was ascertained in 27 cases of late toxemia of pregnancy and 19 normally pregnant women in the ninth and tenth lunar month, as compared with a control group of II normal nonpregnant women of the same age group (20 to 34 years). The lowest excretion rate was found in late toxemia of pregnancy with a total absence of DHEA in 92 per cent of the cases of this group. The excretion of DHEA did not depend on the average excretion of total 17-ketosteroids in urine. A statistically highly significant indirect dependence was, however, found between the average excretion of DHEA and the average level of serum β-lipoproteins. Values for the latter are highest in late toxemia of pregnancy. In explanation of this dependence, it is therefore proposed that DHEA affects the level of serum β-lipoproteins. According to this hypothesis, the DHEA, being an inhibitor of one dehydrogenase of glucose-6-phosphate, regulates the acivity of the pentose cycle and thereby the synthesis of lipids, including β-lipoproteins.