Anabolic agents clinical application

The application of the Birch reduction to ethers of estradiol by A. J. Birch opened up the area of 19-norsteroids to intensive research. The major Birch reduction product is an enol ether which affords either a 3-keto-A -or a 3-keto-A -19-norsteroid depending upon the hydrolysis conditions. Various 19-norsteroids have been found to have useful clinical activity compounds (30), (31), and (32) are oral contraceptive agents and compound (33) has been used as an oral anabolic agent. Several of these compounds were prepared on an industrial scale for a number of years by the Birch reduction of estradiol derivatives. 

Excellent accounts of the biological effects and clinical application of anabolic steroids, by Kriiskemper [5], and of the pharmacology of anabolic steroids, by Overbeek [50], are available. It is the aim of this book to examine the chemical structure-biological activity relationship of androgens and anabolic agents. A new theory of steroid-receptor interaction is also advanced, based on a new approach to the chemical structure-biological activity relationship. 

A ndrogenic and anabolic steroidal hormones present a complex problem of assessment. Their biology, their clinical applications, and the synthetic routes to the best known agents are considered here. 

Successful application of this screen and introduction of a series of compounds which formed the basis for the present improved anabolic agents resulted in a veritable flood of new compounds, tests, and clinically ever more useful agents. Many active agents with enhanced anabolic or androgenic activity have been found. 

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