METABOLITES OF HYDROCORTISONE AND CORTISONE IN SYNOVIAL FLUID IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

It Has been demonstrated that several tissues have the capacity to effect chemical transformations of added steroid hormones in vitro. Two recent reviews (1, 2) summarize much of the work pointing to the liver as a major site of catabolic changes, and to the kidney as also active in this respect. Other tissues appear to act on specific steroid compounds (3–8). When endocrine tissues transform added steroids to the characteristic active hormones of these tissues (6, 8) the process may be classed as biosynthetic rather than catabolic. The biosynthesis of adrenocortical hormones from inactive precursors by adrenal tissue has been amply demonstrated by the Worcester group and others (1, 9).