Biosynthesis and metabolism of steroids

Cholesterol

Steroids are probably synthesized in all vertebrates and in many invertebrates by the same pathway, which includes cholesterol. Biosynthesis of cholesterol is especially vigorous in the liver of vertebrates but also occurs in the intestine, gonads, skin, and immature brain. Cholesterol is barely detectable in the adult brain. The insects, certain mollusks, annelids, and some protozoa do not synthesize cholesterol but must obtain it, or a related sterol, in their diets.

Cholesterol and other steroids are biosynthesized by extension of the enzyme pathway by which terpenoids are synthesized. Acetate fragments derived from common nutrient materials are converted into mevalonic acid, from which the terpenoid hydrocarbon squalene (16a) is formed. One end of the squalene molecule is then oxidized, giving squalene 2,3-oxide (16b), which, by an intramolecular reaction (cyclization) and structural rearrangement, yields the steroid lanosterol (16c). This enzyme-controlled reaction may be initiated by introduction of a positive charge into the oxide ring, because it is remarkably similar to the nonenzymic, acid-catalyzed cyclizations of certain unsaturated hydrocarbons similar in structure to squalene. Cholesterol (16d) is formed from lanosterol by further structural changes.

The principal forms in which cholesterol is excreted by vertebrates are the bile acids, which are synthesized in the liver. Their formation involves specific modifications of the steroid nucleus and formation of a carboxylic acid group that is linked to the amino acids taurine or glycine to give the forms in which the bile acids are secreted into the bile. The biosynthesis of cholesterol is influenced by feedback mechanisms that suppress the formation of mevalonic acid and, consequently, of cholesterol when levels of cholesterol and bile acids in the tissues are elevated.

Steroid hormones

In vertebrates, cholesterol is the central precursor of all steroid hormones secreted by the testes of the male, the ovaries of the female, and the adrenals of both sexes. These tissues share an embryonic tissue of origin and, in consequence, many enzymes for the transformation of cholesterol. A major (though not exclusive) common pathway involves conversion to progesterone (17a). Progesterone is secreted by the corpus luteum of the ovary, but in the adrenal cortex it is further metabolized to steroid hormones (corticosteroids) such as cortisol (17b) and aldosterone (17d). In both ovary and testis, progesterone is transformed further to the androgenic steroid androstenedione (17c), which, together with its derivative testosterone (17e), is secreted by the testis. In the ovary, androstenedione is modified to the estrogen estradiol (17f). Normally, each organ secretes its own characteristic pattern of hormones, but in some disease states (e.g., genetic defects and some tumours of these endocrine glands), these patterns may be profoundly distorted.

Many tissues, but mainly the liver, metabolize the steroid hormones to physiologically inactive products that are voided mainly in the urine, though some are also eliminated via the bile and, ultimately, the feces. Diagnosis of endocrine abnormalities may be assisted by analysis of urinary steroids. Urinary 17-ketosteroids (androstane derivatives with a C=O function at C17) arise principally through oxidation of adrenal steroid hormones in the liver and thus are used to gauge secretion by the adrenal gland rather than by the testis. In pregnancy the urinary excretion of pregnanediol, the principal metabolite of progesterone, measures placental progesterone output. Its decline before term may forewarn of abortion, which may be averted by administration of progestational hormones.

Steroid metabolism in plants

The early steps in the biosynthesis of steroids of both plants and animals are the same, except that in plants lanosterol is replaced by the related compound cycloartenol, which contains a three-membered ring (C9, C10, C19) in lieu of the nuclear double bond of lanosterol. The side chains of the phytosterols, such as stigmasterol, and of the sterol ergosterol of yeasts and other fungi contain extra carbon atoms that are incorporated in reactions involving S-adenosylmethionine, which donates methyl groups in numerous biological processes. Although most plant tissues contain only traces of cholesterol, this sterol is the biogenetic precursor of such important plant steroids as the sapogenins, glycosides, and alkaloids. Because pregnane derivatives are intermediates in some of these transformations, plants and animals appear to have important features of steroid metabolism in common.