Clinical Chemistry, Vol 7, 228-235, Copyright © 1961 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Steroid Metabolism and Genetics

¹ Endocrine Laboratory, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Fla.

Although a clear distinction between anabolic and catabolic processes of steroid metabolism was not made in any of the above studies, the influence of genetic background upon the picture of over-all steroid metabolism can no longer be in doubt. It remains now for future studies to be carried out on normal people, not in their usual role as controls for their less lucky, diseased fellows, but rather as subjects of studies to establish the inherited capacity to elaborate and metabolize characteristic amounts of specific steroid hormones. At the present time, there is no evidence of any pathological significance to such correlations; perhaps all of them will be at a subclinical level. On the other hand, such mild conditions as irregular menses, idiopathic hirsutism, premenstrual tension, all of whose hormonal causes have so far eluded investigators, may well be a reflection of genetic influence causing a slight derangement in the quantitative character of steroid metabolism.