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Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Singapore, Kandang Kerbau Hospitalfor Women, Singapore 8, Republic of Singapore

(Received 3 May 1978)

From the previous studies of Bloch & Benirschke (1959, 1962) and Plotz, Kabara, Davis, LeRoy & Gould (1968) it appears that at mid-term, human foetal adrenal glands are capable of synthesizing C₂₁- and C₁₉-steroids de novo from acetate and cholesterol. Villee, Engel, Loring & Villee (1961), however, incubated slices and homogenates of foetal adrenal gland with [2-¹⁴C]acetate or [4-¹⁴C]cholesterol and could not demonstrate the incorporation of radioactivity into these steroids. Moreover, perfusion studies by three groups of investigators indicated only minute conversions of the same radioactive substrates into neutral steroids in the foetal adrenal glands (Solomon, Bird, Ling, Iwamiya & Young, 1967; Telegdy, Weeks, Archer, Wiqvist & Diczfalusy, 1970a; Telegdy, Weeks, Lerner, Stakemann & Diczfalusy, 1970b). It is widely believed that steroid hormones are normally synthesized from acetate via