Chapter 10

Nuclear receptors

First steps in the isolation of steroid hormones

Origins

The effects of the self-injection of testicular extracts described by BrownSéquard, related in Chapter 1, may or may not have been due to androgenic

steroids. Or they may have been a matter of self-delusion. However, his contemporary, the Scottish surgeon George Thomas Beatson, undoubtedly observed the regression of inoperable breast tumours following ovariectomy, the female equivalent of castration.1 Of course, this manoeuvre – the removal of the source of the sex-related steroids – has a history that probably goes back to the origins of our long and close association with domestic animals.

In the management of the imperial court of medieval China, eunuchs played many important roles. Also, the castration of domestic animals was widely practised both for medicinal purposes and for the improvement of the meat. As the importance of the testes was realized, extracts were prepared and applied in various forms of organotherapy. Placental extracts get a first

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