ON THE RÔLE OF THE LIVER IN THE DETOXIFICATION OF STEROID HORMONES AND ARTIFICIAL ESTROGENS

¹ From the Department of Anatomy, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Experiments in the rat show that the anesthetic action as well as the toxic effect of acute overdosage by the intraperitoneal administration of desoxycorticosterone acetate, progesterone, testosterone benzoate, -estradiol and stilbestrol is greatly increased in animals in which the major part of the liver has been removed. Since this operation does not increase sensitivity to other anesthetics such as ether and magnesium chloride, but is known to sensitize animals to the action of anesthetics which are detoxified in the liver (e.g. tribromethanol), it appears most probable that the liver is the site at which all the above mentioned compounds are normally detoxified.