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Endocrine Research Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Howard University Medical School, Washington D.C. 20059, U.S.A.

(Received 13 March 1978)

Cicero, Bell, Wiest, Allison, Polakoski & Robins (1975) and Mendelson, Mendelson & Patch (1975) reported that treatment of men with methadone decreases the concentration of testosterone in the blood, whereas Cushman (1973) found no significant decrease in his study. The direct effect of methadone on the capacity of the human testes to synthesize [³H]testosterone from [³H]cholesterol has therefore been investigated.

Human testicular tissue (0·5 g, obtained fresh at autopsy) was chopped with scissors and incubated with purified [1,2-³H]cholesterol (5·0 µCi, sp. act. 60 Ci/mmol; New England Nuclear Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts) in 5·0 ml Earle's medium (Difco, Detroit, Michigan) for 3 h with air as the gas phase. Co-factors were added as described by Ahluwalia, Williams & Verma (1974). Methadone hydrochloride (6-dimethylamino-4,4-diphenyl-3-heptanone hydrochloride; Eli-Lilly Co., Indianapolis, Indiana) or human chorionic gonadotrophin