Center for Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94143-0556, USA.
Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Nov;28(11):771-793. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2017.09.002. Epub 2017 Oct 12.
Until the mid-1980s studies of steroidogenesis largely depended on identifying steroid structures and measuring steroid concentrations in body fluids. The molecular biology revolution radically revolutionized studies of steroidogenesis with the cloning of known steroidogenic enzymes, by identifying novel factors, and delineating the genetic basis of known and newly discovered diseases. Unfortunately, this dramatic success has led many young research-oriented endocrinologists to regard steroidogenesis as a 'solved area'. However, many important and exciting questions remain, especially concerning the mechanisms of cholesterol delivery to the steroidogenic machinery, the biochemistry of androgen synthesis, the regulation and biological role of adrenarche, fetal adrenal development and involution, the roles of steroids made in 'extraglandular' cells, and the search for genetic disorders. This review outlines some of these questions, but this list is necessarily incomplete.
直到 20 世纪 80 年代中期，类固醇生成的研究主要依赖于鉴定类固醇结构和测量体液中的类固醇浓度。分子生物学革命通过克隆已知的类固醇生成酶、鉴定新的因素以及阐明已知和新发现疾病的遗传基础，彻底改变了类固醇生成的研究。不幸的是，这一巨大的成功导致许多年轻的以研究为导向的内分泌学家认为类固醇生成是一个“解决了的领域”。然而，仍有许多重要和令人兴奋的问题悬而未决，特别是关于胆固醇向类固醇生成机制的传递机制、雄激素合成的生物化学、肾上腺功能亢进的调节和生物学作用、胎儿肾上腺发育和退化、在“腺外”细胞中产生的类固醇的作用以及遗传疾病的研究。这篇综述概述了其中的一些问题，但这个列表必然是不完整的。
