Cited by 23Phytochemical Studies and BioactivitiesSteroid Chemistry and BiochemistryPharmacogenetics and Drug Metabolism

Ecdysteroid metabolism in mammals: The fate of ingested 20-hydroxyecdysone in mice and rats

Open access
Dinan, L., Balducci, C., Guibout, L., Foucault, A.-S., Bakrim, A., Kumpun, S., Girault, J.-P., Tourette, C. +4 more·2021·The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Abstract

Phytoecdysteroids are molecules derived from sterol metabolism and found in many plants. They display a wide array of pharmacological effects on mammals (e.g. anabolic, anti-diabetic). Although these effects have been long established, the molecular targets involved remain to be identified. Like endogenous steroid hormones and bile acids, which are biochemically related, ingested or injected phytoecdysteroids undergo a set of reactions in mammals leading to the formation of numerous metabolites, only some of which have been so far identified, and it is presently unknown whether they represent active metabolites or inactivation products. In the large intestine, ecdysteroids undergo efficient 14-dehydroxylation. Other changes (reductions, epimerization, side-chain cleavage) are also observed, but whether these occur in the liver and/or large intestine is not known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E), the most common phytoecdysteroid, when administered to mice and rats, using, when required, tritium-labelled molecules to permit metabolic tracking. Bioavailability, the distribution of radioactivity and the kinetics of formation of metabolites were followed for 24-48 hours after ingestion and qualitative and quantitative analyses of circulating and excreted compounds were performed. In mice, the digestive tract always contains the majority of the ingested 20E. Within 30 min after ingestion, 20E reaches the large intestine, where microorganisms firstly remove the 14-hydroxyl group and reduce the 6-one. Then a very complex set of metabolites (not all of which have yet been identified) appears, which correspond to poststerone derivatives formed in the liver. We have observed that these compounds (like bile acids) undergo an entero-hepatic cycle, involving glucuronide conjugation in the liver and subsequent deconjugation in the intestine. Despite the very short half-life of ecdysteroids in mammals, this entero-hepatic cycle helps to maintain their plasma levels at values which, albeit low (≤0.2 μM), would be sufficient to evoke several pharmacological effects. Similar 20E metabolites were observed in mice and rats; they include in particular 14-deoxy-20E, poststerone and 14-deoxypoststerone and their diverse reduction products; the major products of this metabolism have been unambiguously identified. The major sites of metabolism of exogenous ecdysteroids in mammals are the large intestine and the liver. The entero-hepatic cycle contributes to the metabolism and to maintaining a low, but pharmacologically significant, concentration of ecdysteroids in the blood for ca. 24 h after ingestion. These data, together with parallel in vitro experiments provide a basis for the identification of 20E metabolite(s) possibly involved in the physiological effects associated with ecdysteroids in mammals.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2021.105896

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Dinan, L., Balducci, C., Guibout, L., Foucault, A.-S., Bakrim, A., Kumpun, S., Girault, J.-P., Tourette, C., Dioh, W., Dilda, P. J., Veillet, S., & Lafont, R.
Affiliations
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Sorbonne Université (FR)
Corresponding author
Dinan, L.
Venue
The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-09
Volume
212
Pages
105896
ISSN
0960-0760 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3145561128
Cited by
23
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3
FWCI
0.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Fonds unique interministériel
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Phytochemical Studies and Bioactivities
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Steroid Chemistry and Biochemistry
  • Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmacogenetics and Drug Metabolism
Keywords
20-hydroxyecdysone, phytoecdysteroids, pharmacokinetics, enterohepatic circulation, glucuronidation, hepatic metabolism, bioavailability, bile acid metabolism
MeSH terms
Administration, Oral, Animals, Bile, Biological Availability, Ecdysterone, Feces, Female, Gastric Mucosa, Intestinal Mucosa, Liver, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Rats, Wistar, Glucuronides, Mice, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review