Abstract
The compound 11-desoxy-corticosterone acetate is the most active of the known steroid compounds in respect to its property of maintaining life of adrenalectomized animals. This compound (substance A) may be characterized as pregnene (4:5)-ol(21)-dione (3,20) acetate; its immediate precursor in the laboratory synthesis is (substance B) pregnene (5:6) diol (3,21) one (20) 21-monoacetate; a third compound, (substance C) pregnene (4:5) triol (17,20, 21) one (3), was synthesized by Serini and Logemann. 1 In substance C the stereochemical arrangement at carbon 17 is opposite to that of those steroids occurring in the adrenal cortex which also have a hydroxy group at carbon 17. In these studies substance B was found to possess definite biologic activity altnough to a much less extent than substance A, and substance C appeared to be inactive in the doses tested.
Male rats of the Sprague Dawley strain which weighed approximately 180 g were used in these experiments. The diet was Purina Dog Chow. Bilateral adrenalectomies were performed in one stage under ether anesthesia. The test substances were dissolved in sesame oil and administered by subcutaneous injection twice daily. The amount of sesame oil injected was kept constant at 1 cc per day for each rat. Ten animals were maintained for 7 days without treatment. Eighty-one rats were treated for 7 days. On the 7th day each animal was weighed and then subjected to the work test. The animals were anesthetized with phenobarbital sodium. The left gastrocnemius muscle was weighted with 100 g and stimulated to contract 3 times per second. Each animal received 5 cc of water twice daily by subcutaneous injection for as long as the animal continued to work. In all of the experiments stimulation was continued until the muscle ceased to respond.
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