Analysis of steroids from normal and tumor tissue by HPLC

This paper presents a rapid method for the separation and quantitation of steroids obtained from normal and tumor tissue of the human adrenal and ovary. The tissues are initially extracted by organic solvent to separate the steroids from water-soluble compounds. The organically soluble steroids from the human tissues are chromatographed using a previously validated high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. This results in the rapid separation of progesterone, pregnenolone and corticosteroid pathway steroids. The steroids of the progesterone pathway (progesterone, testosterone, androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone) are directly quantitated by integration (using 254 nm absorbance) of the resultant peak areas. These direct quantitative results are compared to the results obtained by radioimmunoassay of the various steroids present in the sample. This use of HPLC results in the rapid separation and direct quantitation (in 40-50 min) of these steroids from human tissues.