Estrogen glucosiduronates

It would seem that, at present, the data demand the interpretation that /3-D-glucuronidase is a purely hydrolytic enzyme that it does not catalyze glucosiduronic acid synthesis that it may, in some cases, be associated with rapid, cell division, and that its apparent relationship to estrogen and to cancer is probably on this basis and, finally, that, although its adaptive characteristics have not been disproved, they are unlikely to exist. If they should exist, the basis is most probably the hydrolytic function. It would seem that /3-D-glucuronidase bears the same relationship to glucuronic conjugates that phenolsulfatase bears to ester sulfates. 

Slauiiwhite (1964) has found good recovery of estrogen sulfates but poor recovery of glucosiduronates from alumina columns,... 

The transport of estrogens in vitro has not been studied extensively. Smith el al. (1963) studied the ability of everted rat gut sacs to transport steroids using estradiol-17/3- C as a model estrogen. With this compound, net transport of radioactivity to the serosal medium was accomplished by oxidation of the estradiol to estrone, followed by conjugation of the estrone as a glucosiduronate. Accumulation of this conjugate in the serosal sac fluid resulted in radioactivity levels as much as seven times those in th(i mucosal medium. 

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