Abstract

Our present knowledge of oestrogen metabolism is very incomplete and fragmentary. This may be mainly due to the lack of adequate methods for the quantitative estimation of the oestrogen metabolites excreted in the urine. With regard to the inactivation of oestrogens in the organism, the significance of the liver has been recognized since the beginning of hormone research. On the whole, the liver has been generally regarded as the most important site of oestrogen inactivation. This was first suspected by Zondek (1934) who advanced this hypothesis to explain the rapid disappearance of natural oestrogens injected into the organism. Succeeding experiments involving perfusion of the liver, ovarian transplantation, and oestrogen implantation into regions or organs drained by the portal circulation, lent support to this hypothesis (Israel et al., 1937; Golden & Sevringhaus, 1938; Biskind, 1941; Biskind & Meyer, 1943; Schiller, 1945). Additional lines of evidence pointing to hepatic inactivation were derived

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