Abstract
THE formation of testosterone by the testis has been studied extensively and the general characteristics of the process have been described1. But the mechanism by which testosterone escapes from the steroidogenic cell and then from the testis is largely unknown2. Eik-Nes3 speculated that testosterone secretion could be explained by the presence of plasma constituents which bind the hormone. These plasma constituents might include erythrocytes, albumin and sex-hormone-binding globulin which have association constants for testosterone of 1×103 (ref. 4), 3×104 (ref. 5) and 1×109 (ref. 6), respectively. On the basis of this information, we hypothesised that testosterone secretion is dependent on diffusion from the steroidogenic cell into the blood and that this diffusion is enhanced by the presence of steroid-binding macromolecules in the blood. We report here a test of this hypothesis.
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References
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EWING, L., CHUBB, C. & ROBAIRE, B. Macromolecules, steroid binding and testosterone secretion by rabbit testes. Nature 264, 84–86 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/264084a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/264084a0
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