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Cortisol Metabolism in the Baboon During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period

Pregnancy Research Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Abstract

The metabolism of iv-administered ¹⁴C-cortisol (F) by pregnant baboons (107, 124 and 150 days gestation) was compared with that previously reported for nonpregnant animals and with that of animals examined 6–18 h after spontaneous vaginal delivery (178 ± 4 days). Unconjugated, glucuronoside (β-glucuronidase) and sulfate (H₂SO₄-ethyl acetate) fractions were extracted with ethyl acetate from urine containing more than 80% of injected ¹⁴C. Metabolites of interest were isolated by paper partition chromatography and purified by crystallization and derivative formation. Compared with nonpregnant animals, the following changes (P < 0.05) were observed in pregnancy: (1) an increase in the percent urinary ¹⁴C in the unconjugated fraction and a decrease in the proportion of ¹⁴C appearing in the glucuronoside fraction; (2) an increase in excretion of metabolites more polar than the cortols; (3) a decrease in excretion of metabolites less polar than cortisone in the glucuronoside fraction; (4) an increase in unconjugated F excretion. Production rate of F (11.9 ± 0.7 mg/day) estimated by isotope dilution and percent urinary ¹⁴C in tetrahydrocortisol and tetrahydrocortisone from the glucuronoside fraction were as in nonpregnant animals. With the exception of an increase in F production (22.7 ± 0.8 mg/day), presumably the result of the stress of labor, F metabolism in the immediate postpartum period was strikingly similar to that in pregnant baboons. The similarity in metabolism between pregnant and postpartum animals indicates that changes in the mother alone can account for the altered metabolic disposition of F in pregnancy and suggests that the fetus takes little part in metabolism of maternal circulating F. (Endocrinology 96: 587, 1975)

Received September 6, 1974.