The secretion rates of deoxycorticosterone and corticosterone in young and elderly men

After intravenous administration of 14C-deoxycorticosterone (DOC) and 3H-corticosterone (B) to 6 young and 7 elderly men, there was no significant difference between the two groups for the total recovery of radioactivity in the urine and neutral extract at the end of 2 days, although the elderly men excreted radioactivity at a significantly slower rate within that time period than young men. Excluding the atypical values for secretion rates (SRs) of DOC and B and for excretion of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids (17-OHCS) for one subject in each age group, the mean SRs for DOC were 0.089 mg/day and 0.047 mg/day, and for B, 3.3 mg/day and 2.0 mg/day, for young and elderly men, respectively. Mean excretion of 17-OHCS for young men was 5.9 mg/day and 4.0 mg/day for elderly subjects. All 3 measures were significantly less for elderly men. For the total sample of 13 men, SRs of DOC correlated significantly with SRs for B and with excretion of 17-OHCS, as did SRs of B with 17-OHCS.