Antiobesity effects of etiocholanolones in diabetes (db), viable yellow (Avy), and normal mice.

Two metabolites of the adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), 3 alpha-hydroxyetiocholanolone and 3 beta-hydroxyetiocholanolone, were found to have antiobesity properties with respect to both prevention of the development of obesity as well as weight reduction after obesity was established. All of the obesity types studied responded to metabolite therapy to a greater or lesser extent. The more natural obesity seen in certain strains of mice with aging responded most rapidly to the feeding of either metabolite. The effective dosage (0.1%) fed in the diet was only one quarter the dosage required for DHEA to produce the same effect in preventing diabetes symptoms in C57BL/Ks diabetic (db) mutant mice. Unlike DHEA, neither metabolite produced any undesirable estrogenic or androgenic side-effects. 3 alpha-hydroxyethiocholanolone and 3 beta-hydroxyetiocholanolone, formerly considered only as inert end products of steroid metabolism, have beneficial actions in mice with various diabetes-obesity conditions and may be metabolic effectors in their own right.