Semafuko W E, Sheff M F, Grimes C A, Latif S A, Sadaniantz A, Levinson P, Morris D J
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Miriam Hospital, Brown University Medical School Providence, Rhode, Island 02906.
Ann Clin Lab Sci. 1993 Nov-Dec;23(6):456-61.
Recently, the current authors reported the presence in normotensive male and female urines of reproducibly measurable levels of naturally occurring substances in partially purified extracts of urine with inhibitory activity like glycyrrhetic acid (GA) towards both 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11 beta-OHSD) and steroid 5 beta-reductase (5 beta-SR) in vitro. Since these substances mimic two known inhibitory activities of GA, they have been named 'Glycyrrhetic Acid-Like Factors', abbreviated as 'GALFs' or, more specifically 11 beta-GALF for substance(s) active against 11 beta-OHSD, and 5 beta-GALF for those inhibitory to 5 beta-SR. Administration of glycyrrhetic acid in man leads to cortisol-dependent mineralocorticoid hypertension, owing to impaired inactivation of cortisol by 11 beta-OHSD, and may be associated with increased sensitivity to mineralocorticoids owing to impaired 5 beta-SR. In this preliminary report, the results are described of a study on the presence of GALF factors in urines collected from patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and mild essential hypertension. The results show that in such patients there are increased amounts of both 11 beta- and 5 beta- GALFs compared to normotensive. The possible physiological significance of these results is discussed.
最近，本文作者报道了在血压正常的男性和女性尿液中，可重复性检测到部分纯化尿提取物中天然存在的物质，这些物质具有类似甘草次酸（GA）的抑制活性，在体外对11β-羟类固醇脱氢酶（11β-OHSD）和类固醇5β-还原酶（5β-SR）均有抑制作用。由于这些物质模拟了GA的两种已知抑制活性，它们被命名为“类甘草次酸因子”，简称为“GALFs”，更具体地说，对11β-OHSD有活性的物质为11β-GALF，对5β-SR有抑制作用的物质为5β-GALF。人体服用甘草次酸会导致皮质醇依赖性盐皮质激素性高血压，这是由于11β-OHSD使皮质醇失活受损，并且可能由于5β-SR受损而导致对盐皮质激素的敏感性增加。在这份初步报告中，描述了一项关于从充血性心力衰竭（CHF）和轻度原发性高血压患者收集的尿液中GALF因子存在情况的研究结果。结果表明，与血压正常者相比，此类患者体内11β-GALF和5β-GALF的含量均有所增加。文中讨论了这些结果可能的生理学意义。
