Progesterone oxidation

Hiroi T, Kishimoto W, Chow T, Imaoka S, Igarashi T, et al. 2001. Progesterone oxidation by cytochrome P450 2D isoforms in the brain. Endocrinology 142 3901-3908. 

Progesterone (oxidation state) Testosterone (sidechain degradation) Cholesterol (sidechain extension) Corticosteroids (A oxidation)... 

Stigmasterol from soy bean extracts can be selectively ozonolyzed on the side-chain double bond. The 20-formyl group formed is converted to the enamine with piperidine. This can be oxidized to progesterone. 

Oxidative degradations of aldehyde derived enamines with ozone (4) or sodium dichromate (485-487) have been applied to the formation of progesterone from 3-ketobisnor-4-cholenaldehyde. 

Pregnenolone is transported from the mitochondria to the ER, where a hydroxyl oxidation and migration of the double bond yield progesterone. Pregnenolone synthesis in the adrenal cortex is activated by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), a peptide of 39 amino acid residues secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. 

The final two stages are very straightforward. Oxidative scission of the C3-C5 double bond in 6 with ozone provides triketone 5 which, without purification, is subjected to a base-induced intramolecular aldol/dehydration reaction. The crystalline product obtained from this two-step sequence (45 % overall yield) was actually an 85 15 mixture of ( )-progesterone and a diastereomeric substance, epimeric at C-17. Two recrystallizations afforded racemic progesterone [( )-(1)] in diastereomerically pure form. 

Mooradian (1993) has studied the antioxidant properties of 14 steroids in a non-membranous system in which the fluorescence of the protein phycoerythrin was measured in the presence of a lipid peroxyl radical generator (ABAP). Oxidation of the protein produces a fluorescent species. Quenching of fluorescence by a test compound indicates antioxidant activity. Oestrone, testosterone, progesterone, androstenedione, dehydroepian-drosterone, cortisol, tetrahydrocortisone, deoxycorti-... 

Treatment of progesterone with trifluoroacetic acid and triethylsilane in dichloromethane followed by saponification of the mixture of the trifluoroacetate ester intermediates of 5-/3-pregnane-3a,20/3-diol and 5-j6-pregnane-3a,20a-diol and Jones oxidation yields 5-/3-pregnanedione in 65% yield (Eq. 81).238... 

FIGURE 4.44 Cytochrome P450-dependent oxidative conversion of cholesterol to progesterone... 

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