Regulation of protein synthesis by androgens and estrogens

Abstract

The administration of testosterone and several other steroid hormones clearly causes a marked diminution in nitrogen excretion (3) and results in increased protein deposition in kidney, liver, muscle, carcass, and accessory sex tissue (4). However, the mechanisms of the protein-anabolic action have never been fully explained. While this effect of testosterone is probably the result of an enhancement of protein synthesis, previous attempts to study this aspect of hormonal action have been complicated by two factors: first, the major enzymatic steps in the synthesis of protein have been described only in the past few years (5) ; and, second, previous attempts to demonstrate an influence of testosterone on protein synthesis in several non-sexual tissues of the rat (6) and mouse (7, 8) have yielded effects which, although consistent, are quite small.