A brief history of adrenal research: steroidogenesis - the soul of the adrenal.

Abstract

The adrenal is a small gland that escaped anatomic notice until the 16th century, and whose essential role in physiology was not established until the mid 19th century. Early studies were confounded by failure to distinguish the effects of the cortex from those of the medulla, but advances in steroid chemistry permitted the isolation, characterization and synthesis of many steroids by the mid 20th century. Knowledge of steroid structures, radiolabeled steroid conversions, and the identification of accumulated urinary steroids in diseases of steroidogenesis permitted a generally correct description of the steroidogenic pathways, but one confounded by the failure to distinguish species-specific differences. The advent of cloning technologies and molecular genetics rapidly corrected and clarified the understanding of steroidogenic processes. Our laboratory in San Francisco was one of several contributing to this effort, focusing on human steroidogenic enzymes, the genetic disorders in their biosynthesis and the transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms regulating enzyme activity.

• Authors: Walter L Miller
• Journal: Molecular and cellular endocrinology (Mol Cell Endocrinol) Vol. 371 Issue 1-2 Pg. 5-14 (May 22 2013) ISSN: 1872-8057 [Electronic] Ireland
• PMID: 23123735 (Publication Type: Historical Article, Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2012 Walter L. Miller. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Hormones
• Steroids

Topics

• Adrenal Glands (anatomy & histology, enzymology, metabolism)
• History, 19th Century
• History, 20th Century
• Hormones (biosynthesis, genetics, metabolism)
• Humans
• Steroid Metabolism, Inborn Errors (genetics)
• Steroids (biosynthesis, chemistry)