ADDITIONAL STEROIDS WITH LUTEOID ACTIVITY

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

17 steroid compounds have been studied for luteoid activity. In agreement with some of the already known pharmaco-chemical correlations, it is concluded that the addition of a methyl, ethyl or ethynyl group at C₁₇ markedly increases the progestational effect of parent compounds which possess only a slight degree of luteoid activity. This general rule has now been demonstrated for testosterone, dihydro-testosterone, ⁵-ANDROSTENE-3(),17()-diol and ANDROSTANE-3(),17(-diol.

Comparative studies concerning three of the main pharmacologic activities of ethynyl-androstenediol and ethynyl-testosterone are reported. These indicate that ethynyl-androstenediol is only slightly less luteoid than ethynyl-testosterone, but considerably less testoid and more folliculoid than the latter compound. The practical significance of these observations is discussed.