抄録
A tracer amount of 3 H-testosterone was administered into the umbilical vein at full term cesarean section and was allowed to circulate in the feto-placental compartments for 10 min before the baby was delivered. Cord blood and maternal and neonatal urine were analysed for radioactive metabolites. Besides unchanged testosterone, androstenedione, estrone, estradiol-17β and estriol were found in these samples. In urine, radioactive 17-KS was also detected. It was noteworthy that estrogens were detected in the circulating cord blood after such a short time. Among three classical estrogens, the ratio of estriol was the highest of all the samples analysed. This fact suggests that testosterone, if produced at all in the fetal testis, would undergo metabolic changes in the placenta and consequently it is not related to the concentration in the cord blood.
