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The metabolism of radioactively labelled testosterone, 5-dihydrotestosterone, 5-androstane-3,17β-diol and 5-androstane-3β,17β-diol by the rabbit epididymis and prostate has been investigated in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, the rate of conversion of testosterone to 5-reduced androgens was low in both glands. Varying the nature of the tissue preparation, age of animal or incubation medium did not improve the situation substantially. However, the rabbit prostate and epididymis metabolized 5-reduced androgens readily. The prostate was particularly efficient at interconverting 5-androstane-3,17β-diol and 5-dihydrotestosterone, whereas the capacity of the epididymis to carry out this step was much lower. Small amounts of 5-androstane-3,17-dione and androsterone were also identified. Both glands interconverted 5-dihydrotestosterone and 5-androstane-3β,17β-diol to a comparable degree.

Following the intravenous injection of ³H-labelled testosterone, significant levels of ³H-labelled 5-dihydrotestosterone were found in the prostate and epididymis within 30 min. Furthermore, 5-androstane-3,17β-diol was detected in both glands. In blood plasma, the ratio of radioactively labelled testosterone: 5-dihydrotestosterone was 2: 1, i.e. similar to that for endogenous steroids. The intravenous injection of ³H-labelled 5-androstane-3-17β-diol gave rise to much higher amounts of 5-dihydrotestosterone in the prostate than in the epididymis, whereas the reverse was found for the levels of unmetabolized diol.

The results indicate that the prostate and epididymis of the adult rabbit differ in their capacity to metabolize 5-reduced androgens and that both glands depend to a large extent on the relatively high levels of 5-dihydrotestosterone and 5-androstanediols present in the peripheral circulation, rather than the metabolism of testosterone in situ.