The liver of a 38-year-old man was injected via the portal vein with 100 μc-1,2-3H-cortisol over a period of 1 minute. Blood samples were withdrawn via the liver vein with a heart catheter at 1-, 3-, 5-, 10- and 20-minute intervals. Metabolism of cortisol was rapid (at 5 min.). The glucuronides represented 20% of the recovered metabolites. Cortols, cortolones, tetrahydrocortisone and tetrahydrocortisol predominated in this fraction. Only the ring-A reduced metabolites were found in the conjugate fraction, indicating a limitation by the Δ4-3-keto-reducing system. There appeared to be an influence by the oxygen at C-11 on the configuration of the 20-hydroxyl. There were a considerable number of metabolites in the unconjugated fraction. Cortisol, cortisone and their 20-reduced analogues, as well as the 6-hydroxylated derivatives, were in this portion. Five 11-oxygenated-17-ketosteroids were also indicated. The sulfates appeared in such low concentration that their analysis was not attempted.
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Wortmann et al. (1971) studied this question.