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WILLIAM Q. WOLFSON, GERALD W. TIMMIS, HUMAN CORTICOSTERONE METABOLISM. V. THE FAILURE OF LARGE ORAL DOSES OF CORTICOSTERONE TO INCREASE URINARY UROPEPSIN, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 15, Issue 8, 1 August 1955, Pages 991–994, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem-15-8-991
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Abstract
CORTICOTROPIN regularly increases the urinary excretion of uropepsin. Cortisone induces a similar increase, whether it be given by mouth or parenterally and, as might be expected, hydrocortisone has also been found to increase uropepsin excretion. The effect of corticosterone, the second major component of the normal human response to corticotropin (1), has apparently not been reported. It is of considerable interest, since corticosterone is a steroid with both appreciable glycocorticoid and mineralocorticoid activity and conceivably might reinforce or modify the response to hydrocortisone given at the same time.
The studies were conducted with the cooperation of 4 normal young men—medical students or house officers. When oral steroids were given, one-fourth of the total dose was ingested every six hours. Urinary uropepsin was estimated by the method of West and associates (2), and urinary creatinine by the method of Bonsnes and Taussky (3).
The following data illustrate the range of values of the uropepsin/creatinine ratio which may be expected in untreated subjects: In patients with proven duodenal ulcer 65 per cent of the ratios were over 0.60, and the remainder were between 0.40 and 0.60. In non-ulcer patients 4 per cent of the ratios were over 0.60, 33 per cent between 0.40 and 0.60, and 63 per cent were less than 0.40 (4).
