Control of Adrenal Androgen Production

Abstract

The major adrenal androgens are dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) and androstenedione (δ4). Studies by Cutler et al in 1978 demonstrated that these androgens are detectable in blood of all domestic and laboratory animals studied, but that only 4 species show increase in one or more with sexual maturation: rabbit, dog, chimpanzee and man. Studies by Grover and Odell in 1975 show these androgens do not bind to the androgen receptor obtained from rat prostate and thus probably are androgens only by conversion to an active androgen in vivo. Thomas and Oake in 1974 showed human skin converted DHEA to testosterone. The control of adrenal androgen secretion is in part modulated by ACTH. However, other factors or hormones must exist also, for a variety of clinical observations show dissociation in adrenal androgen versus cortisol secretion. Other substances that have been said to be controllers of adrenal androgen secretion include estrogens, prolactin, growth hormone, gonadotropins and lipotropin. None of these appear to be the usual physiological modulator, although under some circumstances each may increase androgen production.

Studies from our laboratory using in vivo experiments in the castrate dog and published in 1979 indicated that crude extracts of bovine pituitary contained a substance that either modified ACTH stimulation of adrenal androgen secretion, or stimulated secretion itself - Cortisol Androgen Stimulating Hormone. Parker et al in 1983 showed a 60,000 MW glycoprotein was extractable from human pituitaries, which stimulated DHA secretion by dispersed canine adrenal cells in vitro, but did not stimulate cortisol secretion. This material contained no ACTH by radioimmunoassay. In 1982 Brubaker et al reported a substance was also present in human fetal pituitaries, which stimulated DHA secretion, but did not effect cortisol.