title: Free dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone in human amniotic fluid and prediction of gonadal sex.
abstract: In order to correlate the gonadal production of male sex hormones with overall steroidogenic activity of the fetus, unconjugated dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone were measured in amniotic fluids from mid-pregnancies with male and female fetuses by highly specific radioimmunoassay. The antiserum was raised in rabbits with 3 beta-hydroxy-17-oxo-5-androsten- 19-al 19-carboxymethyloxime BSA as immunogen and its cross-reactions with several steroids were checked. Significantly higher testosterone level was found in amniotic fluid from male fetuses (average concentration 249 +/- 109 pg ml-1 from males as compared with 70 +/- pg ml-1 from females), whereas the difference in DHEA concentration was significant (184 +/- 96 pg mol-1 for males vs. 177 +/- 92 pg ml-1 for females). The positive correlation between testosterone and DHEA concentrations (r = 0.53) was found only in amniotic fluids from pregnancies bearing male fetuses indicating that in males more DHEA may originate from fetal gonads.
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000032:analysis*; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone