Aromatase and testosterone fatty acid esters: the search for a cryptic biosynthetic pathway to estradiol esters

Long-lived testosterone esters in the rat

Over the past decade it has become increasingly clear that steroid hormones are enzymatically esterified with fatty acids. These steroidal esters are the natural analogs of synthetic esters that are used therapeutically. One such family of pharmacological steroids is the synthetic alkyl esters of testosterone, androgens with great hormonal potency. We have investigated whether testosterone esters exist naturally by using the rat as a model. Most tissues of male rats, including blood, have very little if any ester (quantified by immunoassay as a nonpolar saponifiable metabolite), but fat and testes have sizable quantities, approximately 3 ng of testosterone equivalents per g of tissue. Testosterone in fat averages 9 ng/g. The fat from female rats and long-term (> 2 weeks) castrated males has no detectable testosterone ester. The presence of testosterone esters was confirmed by GC/MS, which clearly showed the presence of testosterone in the hydrolyzed ester fraction of fat from intact males but not long-term castrates. Upon castration, testosterone levels in the fat completely disappear within 6 hr. To the contrary, it is not until 48 hr after castration that a measurable fall in the testosterone ester fraction was observed; even after 10 days a small amount of ester is still present in the fat. These experiments demonstrate the existence of a previously unknown androgen with a potentially important physiological impact; testosterone esters, natural analogs of potent therapeutic agents, occur in the fat where they can serve as a reservoir of preformed androgen to stimulate neighboring target tissues.