Remarkable advances have been made in the recent studies of lipid metabolism by Kinsel et al., Ahrens et al., Oliver and other investigators. They have confirmed that the quantity of cholesterol in the blood decreases when vegetable fat is administered to patients with hypertension. It is therefore presumed that cholesterol, a precursor of steroids, may be readily influenced by the vegetable fat rich in essential fatty acids. Furthermore, the vegetable fat is supposed to have an effect on the adrenal, ovary, and other hormonal organs as well as on the level of cholesterol in the blood.
In the present study, the changes of the pituitary-adrenal milieu following treatment with sesame oil, 0.2 g daily per 100 g body weight, for 10 consecutive days in pregnant and non-pregnant albino rats were compared with those of the controls to which no sesame oil was administered.
As for the effects on the adrenal, the contents of lipid and ascorbic acid were measured. Cholesterol and ascorbic acid were found to increase in the rats treated with vegetable fat, and this was evident especially in the non-pregnant rats. Besides, the histological findings on these animals were consistent with the biochemical data mentioned above.
The results obtained in the pregnant rats showed exactly the same tendency as those of the non-pregnant ones, but the variations were generally slight.

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Investigation on the effect of Gestagens on the Pituitary-Adrenocortical function has been undertaken in women who have received long-term administration.
The studies were made in two groups of women : (1) The one group was orally administered Gestagens, i.e., a compound of Norethindrone-Mestranol (norethindrone 5 mg., with mestranol 0.05 mg. per tablet), for a cyclic period of eight to twelve months. (2) While, to study the effect of larger dosage administration, the other group received Norethindrone-Mestranol for a period of three months in connection with pseudopregnancy. The following conclusions were obtained based on various endocrinological findings :
1. No precise conclusion could be drawn from the findings of urinary 17-OHCS, 17-KS evaluations and Thorn test.
2. It was found, however, that there were significant decreases of urinary 17-OHCS, 17-KS, Pregnane-diol and Pregnane-triol, accompanied by a slight increase of plasma 11-OHCS during the period of administration as compared with the pre-treatment values, when the estimation was carried out in more precisely adjusted conditions as regards individual difference and diurnal change.
3. During the period of administration, the effects of ACTH, Su-4885 and dexamethasone tests were studied. It was observed that the excretory patterns of urinary 17-OHCS, 17-KS, Pregnane-diol, Pregnane-triol and plasma 11-OHCS revealed no abnormal depression as compared with the pre-treatment pattern.
4. These results reasonably indicate that the basic function of the pituitary-adreno-cortical system was not basically disturbed during the oral administration of the contraceptive agent.
5. Similar patterns of urinary and plasma steroids under ACTH, Su-4885 and dexamethasone tests were observed in women who were treated with pseudopregnancy type of Gestagens administration. These results clearly point out the evidences that even massive administration of Gestagens has no particular effect on the basic function of pituitary-adrenocortical system.
6. It was assumed that the changes in steroid metabolism of the liver seemed to have occurred during the treatment compared with a pre-treatment period in view of lowered metabolic rate of urinary 17-KS of testosterone in addition to elevated value of serum transaminase and delayed secretory phase of BSP.
7. An attempt was made to explain a mechanism of decreased urinary steroid upon the findings of changed steroid metabolism in the liver and by the increasing trend of plasma 11-OHCS which possibly heighten the plasma protein bound cortisol.
8. It was interpreted that variations of steroid values in blood and urine upon the administration of combined norethindrone-mestranol was not due to an action of estrogen but by a combination of the two, namely, norethindrone and mestranol.
9. From the findings of the tolerance tests, it is proposed that the urinary Pregnanediol, Pregnane-triol, 17-OHCS, 17-KS could equally be applied for the functional test of the pituitary-adrenocortical system of normal women (uncastrated) with a prerequiste of making a fixed environmental condition for estimation.

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The urine was collected daily from 10 male newborns, beginning shortly after birth until the 7th day of life. Daily urinary samples from these infants were pooled to be used for quantitative analysis of steroids. The urine was first treated with limpet β-glucuronidase. After extraction of the steroids with ethyl acetate, steroid sulfate present in aqueous phase was hydrolysed by the method of Burstein and Lieberman. The steroids thus obtained were separated by Girard's reaction and the ketonic fractions were used for analysis. Polar corticoids, present in free state, were extracted with ethyl acetate from urine saturated with sodium sulfate. These fractions were separated by the elution chromatography on partially esterified Amberlite IRC-50 using a mixture of ethanol, methanol and water (9 : 3 : 8, by vol.) as eluent. In this chromatographic system 6β-hydroxycortisol, cortisone, allo-tetrahydrocortisol and tetrahydro-11-desoxycortisol were separated from each another satisfactorily, but tetrahydrocortisol, tetrahydrocortisone and cortisol were eluted together into the same fraction. These three steroids were separated by a partition chromatography on Dowex 50 w×4 using a mixture of ethanol, benzene, n-hexane and water (20 : 100 : 40 : 1, by vol.) as a moving phase. 17-hydroxycorticosteroids present in the effluent fractions were determined photometrically by the Porter-Silber reation.
The daily total amounts of Porter-Silber chromogens of which dominant components were polar corticoids containing 6β-hydroxycortisol were 102 μg/24 hrs. in the 1st day and almost 200 μg/24 hrs. in the 2nd to the 7th day of life. The most specific feature was the dominance of tetrahydrocortisone and cortisone over tetrahydrocortisol and cortisol in the urine of male newborns. The ratio of tetrahydrocortisone to tetrahydrocortisol was more than twenty, whereas the ratios obtained from the urine of their mothers and adults ranged from 1.3 to 2.3.
Tetrahydrocortisone fraction was tentatively identified by : elution volume in the chromatographies on Amberlite IRC-50 and Dowex 50w×4, typical Porter-Silber chromogen, absence of absorption at 240 mμ, absence of absorption at 405 mμ with Oertel-Eik-Nes reagent, positive reaction with blue tetrazolium and the formation of 11-ketoetiocholanolone alone by the oxydation with sodium bismuthate. The recoveries of tetrahydrocortisol and cortisol were recognized to be 40% and 56%, respectively, by the method used in this experiment after the addition of standard tetrahydrocortisol and cortisol before hydrolysis.
It is suggested from this result that cortisol might be metabolised to cortisone at a much higher rate in newborns than in adults.

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In 65 diabetic patients and 15 control subjects, the amounts of urinary total 17-OHCS excretion and it's components were studied in the basal condition and during and after the loading with ACTH, metopiron and dexamethasone. The separation of the individual component was carried out with Kieselguhr partition column chromatography of Tait et al., in which the solvent system was toluene-ethylacetate 12 : 1 v/v : methanol-water 1 : 1 v/v, and the column contained celite 545. This procedure gave the discrete separation of THS, E, F, THE and THF available for routine quantitative analysis.
The amounts of components of 17-OHCS excreted in urine in control subjects were found to be as follows :
THS ; ?-0.05 mg/day (?-2.0%), E ; 0.05-0.1 (2.0-3.6), F ; 0.05-0.1 (1.4-4.0), THE ; 1.3-2.1 (60.0-76.5) and THF ; 0.3-1.2 (17.6-34.6).
In diabetic patients, except for the cases as specified below, a negligible difference was found in urinary 17-OHCS excretion in response to loading as well as in basal condition.
In the cases of mild diabetic retinopathy or nephropathy, however, the following was revealed : (1) slight to moderate increase in the amounts of urinary total 17-OHCS, (2) a slight decrease in 'THE (59.0%) and a slight increase in THF (33.6%) in basal condition, which was similar to the findings observed in control subjects after ACTH loading, (3) greater effects of ACTH on urinary 17-OHCS excretion than in control or other diabetic subjects, (4) considerable suppression of the excretion by dexamethasone, (5) almost normal effects of metopiron and (6) quicker restoration of urinary total 17-OHCS values, after stopping the consecutive loading of metopiron, than in control and other diabetic subjects.
In the cases of Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome, the following findings were obtained :
(1) The low values of urinary total 17-OHCS is basal condition, (2) a slight response of total 17-OHCS to either ACTH or metopiron, (3) marked inhibitory effects of metopiron on 118-hydoroxylation in comparison to those in control subjects.
These results support the hypothesis that in the patients with mild diabetic retino-pathy or nephropathy, there must be the disturbance in the feed-back mechanism and the abnormality in the hypothalamus owing to the metabolic stress.

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In daily urinary pool of rabbits, the ratio of excreted creatine to creatinine was found to have been raised by daily parenteral administration of 25 mg of Prednisolone. In these animals, urinary recovery of creatine, orally loaded, was larger than in the control. This fact shows that the creatinuria in this case does not depend on an impaired synthesis but on decreased storage capacity.
Isotope technique was used to elucidate the storage capacity. Thirty minutes after a subcutaneous injection of 2 μC (112 gamma) of C₁₄-creatine to a male albino rat, the radioactivities were found in the lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, skeletal muscles with the exception of the brain. However, a gradual increase in the radioactivities followed in the brain, heart and skeletal muscle, but a decrease in the other organs. Finally, 44 hrs after the injection, the distribution pattern of radioactivities to each tissue became identical to that of total creatine and creatine kinase.
These findings lead us to the conclusion that the creatinuria by prednisolone is due to the lowered ability of converting creatine to creatine phosphate-the fixed form in the tissues-, as a result of decrease in creatine kinase activity.
The decrease in enzyme activity was found in creatine kinase, aldolase, and Ca-ATPase of rabbit muscles by injection of prednisolone. The influence of the steroid on these enzymes is not necessarily equal in different tissues. The change was most significant in the back muscle followed by gastrocnemius, soleus, diaphragm and heart in decreasing order.
The color of the muscles was the deepest red in the heart, gradually fading in association with the decrease of myoglobin, succinic dehydrogenase activity, the ratio of GOTm to total GOT, the ratio of GPTm to total GPT, and the amount of H subunit in LDH in the above order. A composition of the heart is suitable for its tonic movement, and contrary, that of the back muscle for its phasic movement. It can be said, therefore, that the steroid exerts a stronger influence on the white color muscle with phasic movement.

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The effects of chronic administration of estradiol and hexestrol on the plasma cholesterol level were studied in male rats weighing 200 to 250 gm. When 0.3 mg per rat of estradiol was injected subcutaneously twice per week, the plasma cholesterol level initially decreased for a week, but then turned to increase and finally attained to 2 to 2.5 times the initial level at the end of 3 weeks. When varing amounts of estradiol were given, the least amount (0.03 mg per rat) gave only a slight increase of the plasma cholesterol level which was gradually elevated during the hormone treatment. Conversely, the largest amount (0.3 mg per rat) of estradiol caused an initial decrease followed by a significant increase in the plasma cholesterol level. The moderate amount of estradiol produced an intermediate responses of both hypo-and hypercholesterolemic effects. When the dose of estradiol was gradually increased by injection, the hypocholesterolemic effect was observed more evidently. In contrast to the biphasic effect of estradiol, a single effect, hypocholesterolemic, was induced by hexestrol during the treatment. The hypocholesterolemic response to hexestrol was, however, gradually reduced after the successive injection and finally disappeared, but this tachyphylactic phenomenone was prevented by the gradual increase of the dosage for every injection. Testosterone propionate caused no effect on the manifestation of the hypocholesterolemic effect of estrogens but it suppressed the hypercholesterolemic effect of estradiol. From these results, the dual effect of estrogens on the rat plasma cholesterol level was discussed.

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This study was made to evaluate the effect of adrenocortical steroids on the secretion of thyroid hormones in hyperthyroid patients.
Adrenocortical steroids (dexamethasone : 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg. per day, hydrocortisone : 60, 80,160 and 240 mg. per day, paramethasone : 2 and 3 mg. per day, cortisone : 100 mg. per day, methylprednisolone : 8, 12 and 16 mg. per day and prednisolone : 10 mg. per day) and ACTH (ACTH-Z : 80 and 160 I.U. per day) were administered and the rate of the I¹³¹ release from the thyroid gland was measured in 35 hyperthyroid patients.
1) To evaluate the effect of a blocking agent which was given through the experiment in order to block a synthesis of thyroid hormones and a thyroidal uptake of iodine, 10 mg. of 1-methyl 2-mercaptoimidazole (MMI) was administered orally every 8 hrs. for 7 days and the I¹³¹ thyroidal uptake was examined on 6th day in 10 hyperthyroid patients. The value of the thyroidal uptake was compared with that of the pretreatment and a suppressibility was calculated by the following formula.
S=B-D×100
S : suppressibility (%)
B : I¹³¹ uptake value of before treatment (%)
D : I¹³¹ uptake value of during treatment (%)
The thyroidal uptake was markedly suppressed and the mean value of suppressibility by MMI was 65.7% at 3 hrs. and 73.1% at 24 hrs.
2) A tracer dose of 100 to 200μc of radioiodine was administered orally and 24 hrs. later, MMI was given orally in a dosage of 10 mg. every 8 hrs. through the experiment. The thyroidal radioactivity was measured once or twice a day using a collimeted scintillation counter over the thyroid gland and corrected for physiological decay. The rate of the release of I¹³¹ was calculated by the method of least squears. Following the determination of the rate of the I¹³¹ release in a control period, adrenocortical steroids were administered orally 2 to 4 times a day or ACTH was administered intramuscularlly twice a day and the rate of the I¹³¹ release was compared with the rate of that in a control period by the F-test between them.
3) The effect of dexamethasone on the I¹³¹ thyroidal uptake was studied in 13 hyperthyroid patients and in 13 normal subjects and the suppressibility was calculated by the above mentioned formula. The mean value of suppressibility by dexamethasone was 16.5% at 3 hrs. and 7.4% at 24 hrs. in hyperthyroid patients and 13.7% at 3 hrs. and 11.2% at 24 hrs. in normal subjects. These results indicate that there is no significant effect of dexamethasone on the I¹³¹ thyroidal uptake in bo th hyperthyroid and normal subjects. The rate of the I¹³¹ release was reduced by the administration of dexamethasone in 8 out of 15 patients. Especially, a decrease was observed in 4 out of 5 patients in whom 2 mg. was administered per day.
4) The rate of the I¹³¹ thyroidal release was increased by the administration of hydrocortisone in 3 out of 9 patients. The effect of hydrocortisone was different from that of dexamethasone. Therefore 1 mg. of potassium perchlorate was administered together with 10 mg. MMI every 8 hrs. in order to block a synthesis of thyroid hormones and a thyroidal uptake more markedly and the effect of hydrocortisone was studied in 2 patients. Hydrocortisone decreased the rate of the I¹³¹ release in those 2 patients.
5) An increase of the rate of the I¹³¹ release was observed in 3 out of 6 patients treated with ACTH.
6) The administration of paramethasone induced a decrease of the rate in 1 out of 3 patients and a decrease of the rate was observed in a patient treated with prednisolone.
7) The administration of dexamethasone, paramethasone and prednisolone induced a decrease in the rate of the I¹³¹ release,

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