Diet and the action of cortisone on protein metabolism

Abstract

ESTIMATION OF DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE 343 sists in continuously extracting urine acidified to pH 1 for 48-72 hr. with ether. Recently Burstein & Lieberman (1958) have described a solvolysis procedure for splitting these conjugates. Although these procedures hydrolyse the sulphates of the 3-hydroxy-5a-and -5fl-steroids in addition to the 3#-hydroxy-A5-steroids, the former method has the disadvantage that the hydrolysis is slow and, more important, that more labile steroids, e.g. 3,:16o-dihydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one, are de- stroyed by these conditions. Whether or not these labile steroids are destroyed by the method of Burstein & Lieberman remains to be determined. The hydrolysis procedure used in the present method is comparatively quick and the more labile steroids appear not to be destroyed, so that the method should be capable of extension to include the other 3fl-hydroxy-.A6steroids that have been shown to occur in the urine of normal males SUMMARY 1. A method for the estimation of dehydroepiandrosterone in urine is described in which the sulphate of this steroid is hydrolysed by heating urine without acidification at 1000 for 6 hr.