What was the first hormone discovered?
Secretin
Secretin was the first hormone to be identified. In 1902, William Bayliss and Ernest Starling were studying how the nervous system controls the process of digestion. It was known that the pancreas secreted digestive juices in response to the passage of food (chyme) through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum. They discovered (by cutting all the nerves to the pancreas in their experimental animals) that this process was not, in fact, governed by the nervous system. They determined that a substance secreted by the intestinal lining stimulates the pancreas after being transported via the bloodstream. They named this intestinal secretion "secretin". Secretin was the first such "chemical messenger" identified. This type of substance is now called a hormone, a term coined by Bayliss in 1905.
Percy Lavon Julian
Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an African American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, plus a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.
Miguel Ondetti
Miguel Ondetti moved to the gastrointestinal hormone group in the mid 1960s. The first hormone to be studied by Ondetti's group was cholecystokinin, a digestion hormone. This product presented unique challenges because of the small amounts used in reactions. Unfortunately, bioassays were not quantitative enough to use for results and chemical reactions did not run well as such low amounts.
Arthur Birch (organic chemist)
Birch developed the Birch reduction of aromatic rings (by treatment with lithium metal and ammonia) which is widely used in synthetic organic chemistry. The Birch Reduction enables the modification of steroids. In 1948 Birch published the first total synthesis of a male sex hormone (19-nortestosterone), as the first member of a new structural series. This series later comprised the first oral contraceptive pill, which was made by others. The Birch reduction also allows for the development of other steroid drugs and antibiotics – he also made the first simple synthesis of the ring A-B structure of cholesterol. Birch published over 440 scientific papers and reports.
Progesterone (medication)
The hormonal action of progesterone was discovered in 1929. Pure crystalline progesterone was isolated in 1934 and its chemical structure was determined. Later that year, chemical synthesis of progesterone was accomplished. Shortly following its chemical synthesis, progesterone began being tested clinically in women. In 1934, Schering introduced progesterone as a pharmaceutical drug under the brand name Proluton. It was administered by intramuscular injection because it is rapidly metabolized when taken by mouth and hence required very high oral doses to produce effects.
Progestogen ester
Estrogens were discovered in 1929, and beginning in 1936, a variety of estradiol esters, such as estradiol benzoate and estradiol dipropionate, were introduced for clinical use. Testosterone esters, such as testosterone propionate and testosterone phenylacetate, were also introduced around this time. In contrast to estradiol and testosterone, progesterone proved more difficult to esterify. In fact, esterification involves the replacement of a hydroxyl group with an alkoxy group, and unlike estradiol and testosterone, progesterone does not possess any hydroxyl groups, so it is actually not chemically possible to esterify progesterone itself. The first progestogen esters were not introduced until the mid-1950s, and were esters of 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (which, unlike progesterone, has a hydroxyl group available for esterification) rather than of progesterone; they included 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (Delalutin, Proluton) and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone acetate (Prodrox). The following quote of de Médicis Sajous et al. (1961) details the development of progestogen esters:
1-Keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene
1-Keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene (THP-1), or 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthren-1-one, is a synthetic steroid-like compound which was reported to be the first synthetic estrogen, or the first synthetic compound identified with estrogenic activity. It was first synthesized in 1933 by Cook et al. and was tested due to its similarity to the presumed chemical structure of estrone. Upon reassessment many decades later, the compound was found to bind only weakly to the estrogen receptors, and, unexpectedly, did not actually have functional activity as an estrogen or antiestrogen "in vitro" or "in vivo". It did, however, show some androgenic and antiandrogenic activity "in vitro".
Adrenaline
Adrenaline, also known as adrenalin or epinephrine, is a hormone, neurotransmitter, and medication. Epinephrine is normally produced by both the adrenal glands and certain neurons. It plays an important role in the fight-or-flight response by increasing blood flow to muscles, output of the heart, pupil dilation response, and blood sugar level. It does this by binding to alpha and beta receptors. It is found in many animals and some single cell organisms. Napoleon Cybulski first isolated epinephrine in 1895.
Clearblue
In 1989, Clearblue released the first one-step home ovulation test, enabling women to measure their surge in Luteinising Hormone (LH) to determine their most fertile days. In 1999, the brand launched the world’s first dual-hormone fertility monitor, which allowed women to measure estrone3-glucuronide (estrogen) in combination with LH. The company created the first digital ovulation test in 2004. In 2013, the company also began offering an ovulation test with a dual hormone read detecting both estrogen and LH.
Epiandrosterone
Epiandrosterone, or isoandrosterone, also known as 3β-androsterone, 3β-hydroxy-5α-androstan-17-one, or 5α-androstan-3β-ol-17-one, is a steroid hormone with weak androgenic activity. It is a metabolite of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It was first isolated in 1931, by Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt and Kurt Tscherning. They distilled over 17,000 litres of male urine, from which they got 50 milligrams of crystalline androsterone (most likely mixed isomers), which was sufficient to find that the chemical formula was very similar to estrone.
Ethamoxytriphetol
Ethamoxytriphetol (developmental code name MER-25) is a synthetic nonsteroidal antiestrogen that was studied clinically in the late 1950s and early 1960s but was never marketed. MER-25 was first reported in 1958, and was the first antiestrogen to be discovered. It has been described as "essentially devoid of estrogenic activity" and as having "very low estrogenic activity in all species tested". However, some estrogenic effects in the uterus have been observed, so it is not a pure antiestrogen (that is, a silent antagonist of the estrogen receptor (ER)) but is, instead, technically a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). For all intents and purposes, it is a nearly pure antiestrogen, however.
Jeffrey M. Friedman
When Friedman started his own laboratory at The Rockefeller University, he turned his attention to the question of weight regulation. Working with a special strain of mice, he set out to identify the hormone that normal animals use to control their appetite - a molecule that was missing in the plump rodents. After eight years—on May 8, 1994, at 5:30 a.m.—he found what he was looking for: evidence that he'd located the gene that produces the hormone he later dubbed "leptin", after the Greek word for "thin" (λεπτός "leptos"). "It was astonishingly beautiful", he says of the x-ray film that nailed the gene, a piece of data that now hangs on his office wall.
Signal transduction
Following are some major signaling pathways, demonstrating how ligands binding to their receptors can affect second messengers and eventually result in altered cellular responses.The earliest notion of signal transduction can be traced back to 1855, when Claude Bernard proposed that ductless glands such as the spleen, the thyroid and adrenal glands, were responsible for the release of "internal secretions" with physiological effects. Bernard's "secretions" were later named "hormones" by Ernest Starling in 1905. Together with William Bayliss, Starling had discovered secretin in 1902. Although many other hormones, most notably insulin, were discovered in the following years, the mechanisms remained largely unknown.
Cyril Norman Hugh Long
In the 1930s and 1940s Long and Abraham White worked together in the Yale Medical Center. As a result of their work in 1937 they isolated bovine prolactin, the first of the protein pituitary hormones to be obtained in pure crystalline form. Later, they isolated different hormones, and later characterized and sequenced many of them, greatly contributing to modern biochemistry. Long mainly worked with the hormones of the pituitary gland and adrenal extracts of the metabolism; his major research goal was to find a cure for diabetes.
Estradiol
Estradiol, the most potent of the three major estrogens, was the last of the three to be identified. It was discovered by Schwenk and Hildebrant in 1933, who synthesized it via reduction of estrone. Estradiol was subsequently isolated and purified from sow ovaries by Doisy in 1935, with its chemical structure determined simultaneously, and was referred to variously as "dihydrotheelin", "dihydrofolliculin", and "dihydroxyestrin". In 1935, the name "estradiol" and the term "estrogen" were formally established by the Sex Hormone Committee of the Health Organization of the League of Nations; this followed the names estrone (which was initially called theelin, progynon, folliculin, and ketohydroxyestrin) and estriol (initially called theelol and trihydroxyestrin) having been established in 1932 at the first meeting of the International Conference on the Standardization of Sex Hormones in London. Following its discovery, a partial synthesis of estradiol from cholesterol was developed by Inhoffen and Hohlweg in 1940, and a total synthesis was developed by Anner and Miescher in 1948.
Nuggehalli Raghuveer Moudgal
Moudgal's early researches at the University of Madras were on the biochemistry of thyroid hormones but he shifted his focus to pituitary gonadotropins during his days at Choh Hao Li's laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley when he established that the hormones generated immune response in living beings and the discovery was reported to be a significant one as the belief till then was the principal function of the hormones was reproduction. Later, at Rodney Porter's laboratory in London, he worked on the role of cellulose as a carrier for immobilization of antibodies. Back in India, he expanded the scope of his researches to cover wider aspects of reproductive biology for which he established a Primate Research Laboratory at IISc in 1965, which was the largest primate house in the country at that time. Working on the macaques in his primate house, he discovered that sialidase from the kidney of the primate acted as an inhibitor of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), a hormone responsible for pubertal development. He conducted elaborate studies on the molecular mechanism of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), a hormone which has significant role in ovulation and testosterone production, and elucidated the "unfolding of LH binding to LH receptors in the target cell" which was detailed in one of his articles, "Effect of ICSH on Early Pregnancy in Hypophysectomized Pregnant Rats", published in Nature in 1969. He discovered that neutralizing LH resulted in neutralization of several reproductive functions such as ovulation, implantation, and gestational progress and the discovery opened a new methodology in immunocontraceptive technology. Later, he furthered his investigations on hormone actions by using antibodies as probes. His findings reportedly prompted R. O. Greep of Harvard University to invite him for collaborative research and Moudgal supervised the work of Greep's Group at his laboratory. At Harvard, he also collaborated with W. R. Moyle and established the presence of Luteinizing hormone/choriogonadotropin receptors on tumor cells in the testicles for the first time, which they revealed in an article, "Specific binding of luteinizing hormone to Leydig tumor cells", published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1971. He used these tumor cells for further investigations on Hormone-Receptor interactions, Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) production and steroidogenesis and experimentally demonstrated the extent of coupling and response with regard to cyclic AMP production and steroid output.
Alfred Jost
Alfred Jost (1916–1991) was a French endocrinologist, and an early researcher in the field of fetal endocrinology. He is known for his discovery of the Müllerian inhibitor, now called anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) or Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS). His research demonstrated how hormones affect the development of male and female sex characteristics.
Vincent Wigglesworth
In particular, he studied metamorphosis. His most significant contribution was the discovery that neurosecretory cells in the brain of the South American kissing bug, "Rhodnius prolixus", secrete a crucial hormone that triggers the prothoracic gland to release prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), which regulates the process of metamorphosis. This was the first experimental confirmation of the function of neurosecretory cells. He went on to discover another hormone, called the juvenile hormone, which prevented the development of adult characteristics in "R. prolixus" until the insect had reached the appropriate larval stage. Wigglesworth was able to distort the developmental phases of the insect by controlling levels of this hormone. From these observations, Wigglesworth was able to develop a coherent theory of how an insect's genome can selectively activate hormones which determine its development and morphology.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
The Institute was formally established in 1971 by the Victorian Government and named in honour of Howard Florey, an Australian Laureate of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine who helped to isolate the active principle of penicillin and developed the first manufacturing process for the antibiotic. The Institute conducted research into physiological control of body fluid and electrolyte balance, especially the regulation of the adrenal salt-retaining hormone, aldosterone; micro measurement of hormones; hybridization histochemistry; instincts that control ingestion; and the Relaxin hormone.
Donald F. Steiner
Donald F. Steiner is known for his discoveries on proinsulin, the precursor of insulin which is a hormone that helps the body control the use of sugar. He found that insulin is synthesized from a larger precursor protein in the beta cells of the pancreas and this led the way to elucidation of how the islet cells function, and how peptide hormones are synthesized and metabolized. He and his colleagues discovered some of the enzymes that convert proinsulin into insulin, and also devised methods for measuring insulin and its precursors in human serum.
Motivation
Another basic drive is the sexual drive which like food motivates us because it is essential to our survival. The desire for sex is wired deep into the brain of all human beings as glands secrete hormones that travel through the blood to the brain and stimulates the onset of sexual desire. The hormone involved in the initial onset of sexual desire is called Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). The hormonal basis of both men and women's sex drives is testosterone. Men naturally have more testosterone than women do and so are more likely than women to think about sex.
Opium
Heroin, the first semi-synthetic opioid, was first synthesized in 1874, but was not pursued until its rediscovery in 1897 by Felix Hoffmann at the Bayer pharmaceutical company in Elberfeld, Germany. From 1898 to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. Because the lethal dose of heroin was viewed as a hundred times greater than its effective dose, heroin was advertised as a safer alternative to other opioids. By 1902, sales made up 5 percent of the company's profits, and "heroinism" had attracted media attention. Oxycodone, a thebaine derivative similar to codeine, was introduced by Bayer in 1916 and promoted as a less-addictive analgesic. Preparations of the drug such as oxycodone with paracetamol and extended release oxycodone remain popular to this day.
William Bate Hardy
He was born in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, the son of William Hardy of Llangollen and his wife Sarah Bate. Educated at Framlingham College, he graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of Cambridge in 1888, where he carried out biochemical research. He first suggested the word hormone to E.H. Starling.
Thyroid-stimulating hormone
Thyroid-stimulating hormone (also known as thyrotropin, thyrotropic hormone, TSH, or hTSH for human TSH) is a pituitary hormone that stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroxine (T), and then triiodothyronine (T) which stimulates the metabolism of almost every tissue in the body. It is a glycoprotein hormone produced by thyrotrope cells in the anterior pituitary gland, which regulates the endocrine function of the thyroid. In 1916, Bennett M. Allen and Philip E. Smith found that the pituitary contained a thyrotropic substance.
Growth hormone
Prior to its production by recombinant DNA technology, growth hormone used to treat deficiencies was extracted from the pituitary glands of cadavers. Attempts to create a wholly synthetic HGH failed. Limited supplies of HGH resulted in the restriction of HGH therapy to the treatment of idiopathic short stature. Very limited clinical studies of growth hormone derived from an Old World monkey, the rhesus macaque, were conducted by John C. Beck and colleagues in Montreal, in the late 1950s. The study published in 1957, which was conducted on "a 13-year-old male with well-documented hypopituitarism secondary to a crainiophyaryngioma," found that: "Human and monkey growth hormone resulted in a significant enhancement of nitrogen storage ... (and) there was a retention of potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and sodium. ... There was a gain in body weight during both periods. ... There was a significant increase in urinary excretion of aldosterone during both periods of administration of growth hormone. This was most marked with the human growth hormone. ... Impairment of the glucose tolerance curve was evident after 10 days of administration of the human growth hormone. No change in glucose tolerance was demonstrable on the fifth day of administration of monkey growth hormone." The other study, published in 1958, was conducted on six people: the same subject as the Science paper; an 18-year-old male with statural and sexual retardation and a skeletal age of between 13 and 14 years; a 15-year-old female with well-documented hypopituitarism secondary to a craniopharyngioma; a 53-year-old female with carcinoma of the breast and widespread skeletal metastases; a 68-year-old female with advanced postmenopausal osteoporosis; and a healthy 24-year-old medical student without any clinical or laboratory evidence of systemic disease.
Percy Lavon Julian
Julian's research at Glidden changed direction in 1940 when he began work on synthesizing progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone from the plant sterols stigmasterol and sitosterol, isolated from soybean oil by a foam technique he invented and patented. At that time clinicians were discovering many uses for the newly discovered hormones. However, only minute quantities could be extracted from hundreds of pounds of the spinal cords of animals.
Karl Slotta
In 1933, Slotta was first, or one of the first, to isolate and identify progesterone (there being four separate research labs which claim such distinction [4]).
Teresa Woodruff
Dr. Woodruff’s scientific successes started early in her career—in 1986, as a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Kelly Mayo at Northwestern University, she cloned the subunits that form the peptide hormones inhibin and activin, placing her at the forefront of modern reproductive molecular biology. She thrived within the strong collaborative environment of the Mayo and Schwartz labs—Neena B. Schwartz discovered inhibin in 1977 at Northwestern—allowing her to rapidly describe inhibin subunit regulation during the rat estrus cycle, publishing her results in "Science" in 1988. These peptide hormones are powerful and their absence causes sterility. This work was recognized in 2000 by the Endocrine Society Weitzman Award, given to a scientist of exceptional promise under the age of 40.
List of drugs by year of discovery
In 1901 Jokichi Takamine isolated and synthesized the first hormone, Adrenaline. In 1907 Alfred Bertheim synthesized Arsphenamine, the first antibiotic made by men. In 1927 Erik Rotheim patented the first aerosol spray can. In 1933 Robert Pauli Scherer created a method to develop softgels.
Estrogen
In 1929, Adolf Butenandt and Edward Adelbert Doisy independently isolated and purified estrone, the first estrogen to be discovered. Then, estriol and estradiol were discovered in 1930 and 1933, respectively. Shortly following their discovery, estrogens, both natural and synthetic, were introduced for medical use. Examples include estriol glucuronide (Emmenin, Progynon), estradiol benzoate, conjugated estrogens (Premarin), diethylstilbestrol, and ethinylestradiol.
Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation
An endocrinology study by Garcia-Falgueras and Swaab postulated that "In humans, the main mechanism responsible of sexual identity and orientation involves a direct effect of testosterone on the developing brain." Further, their study puts forward that intrauterine exposure to hormones is largely determinative. Sketching the argument briefly here, the authors say that sexual organs are differentiated first, and then the brain is sexually differentiated "under the influence, mainly, of sex hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and progesterone on the developing brain cells and under the presence of different genes as well ... . The changes brought about in this stage are permanent. ... Sexual differentiation of the brain is not caused by hormones alone, even though they are very important for gender identity and sexual orientation."
Herbert McLean Evans
His medical research at Berkeley addressed problems relating to human nutrition, endocrinology, embryology, and histology. In 1918, his research into the number of human chromosomes led him to believe the number to be 48, when most people assumed the number to be much higher. It was only later discovered that the correct figure was 46. Evans had much greater success however with hormones extracted from the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. He isolated Human Growth Hormone, which is essential for human growth and development. In 1922 along with Katharine Scott Bishop, during feeding experiments on rats, he co-discovered Vitamin E which is needed for human reproduction. Evans became director of the Institute of Experimental Biology at Berkeley in 1931. With Gladys Anderson Emerson, he reported the isolation of the pure Vitamin E from wheat germ in 1937. He also determined the formula CHO. Evans was also instrumental in developing reproductive systems research with Miriam Elizabeth Simpson and Choh Hao Li, by studying the oestrus cycle of rats. Evans is also credited with developing Evans blue, a method which determines blood volume in humans and animals.
James Francis Tait
James Francis Tait was an English physicist and endocrinologist. He worked with his wife, Sylvia Agnes Sophia Tait from 1948 until her death in 2003, a partnership described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "one of the most successful examples of husband-wife collaboration." Together, they discovered and identified the hormone aldosterone.
Hormone
The discovery of hormones and endocrine signaling occurred during studies of how the digestive system regulates its activities, as explained at "Secretin § Discovery".
Ray Farquharson
Through his research in endocrinology with colleague Arthur Squires, Farquharson discovered what became known as the "Farquharson Phenomenon": that the introduction of continuous exogenous hormone doses suppresses the natural production of that hormone in the patient and causes temporary atrophy in the producing organ. This phenomenon became one of the basic principles of endocrinology and a key factor in the etiology of hormonal abnormalities. Farquharson also made significant contributions related to anemia and pigment metabolism. He was the first Canadian doctor to publicize Sheehan's syndrome, and the first North American to report on Simmond's disease. As an educator and researcher, he was an early promoter of laboratory testing in the evaluation of illness; he was known for advocating both this and awareness of potential psychological issues in patients.
Auxin
Auxins ( ) are a class of plant hormones (or plant growth regulators) with some morphogen-like characteristics. Auxins have a cardinal role in coordination of many growth and behavioral processes in the plant's life cycle and are essential for plant body development. Auxins and their role in plant growth were first described by the Dutch biologist Frits Warmolt Went. Kenneth V. Thimann was the first to isolate one of these phytohormones and determine its chemical structure as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Went and Thimann co-authored a book on plant hormones, "Phytohormones", in 1937.
Gladys Anderson Emerson
From 1933–1942 she was a research associate at the Institute of Experimental Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, working with Herbert McLean Evans. Herbert Evans had identified and named Vitamin E in 1922, but Gladys Emerson was the first person to isolate it, by obtaining alpha-tocopherol from wheat germ oil. In 1940, she and her husband divorced.
Estradiol benzoate
Estradiol benzoate was one of the first estrogens to be developed and marketed. In 1931, Adolf Butenandt found that the benzoic acid ester of estrone had a prolonged duration of action. Schwenk and Hildebrant discovered estradiol via reduction of estrone in 1933, and they proceeded to synthesize estradiol benzoate from estradiol the same year. Estradiol benzoate was patented by Schering in 1933, and then by Schering-Kahlbaum in 1936 in an oil preparation for injectable use, and was introduced later that year in 1936 under the brand name Progynon-B. Following its introduction, estradiol benzoate, along with estradiol dipropionate, were the most widely used esters of estradiol for many years. However, estradiol valerate and estradiol cypionate, which are longer-acting esters that require less frequent administration, were developed and introduced in the 1950s, and have since largely superseded estradiol benzoate and estradiol dipropionate.
Christian de Duve
Sutherland had been working on the insulin-impurity substance and had named it hyperglycemic-glycogenolytic (HG) factor. He and de Duve immediately discovered that the HG factor was synthesised not only by the pancreas but, surprisingly, by the gastric mucosa and certain other parts of the digestive tract. They further found that the hormone was produced from pancreatic islets by cells differing from the insulin-producing beta cells, presumably the alpha cells. It was de Duve who realised that Sutherland's HG factor was glucagon, and this rediscovery led to its permanent name, which he reintroduced it in 1951. They showed that glucagon was the major hormone influencing the breakdown of glycogen (glycogenolysis) in the liver, by which more sugars are produced in the blood.
Adipokinetic hormone
AKH was first purified by an English group in 1976 and the chemical structure was determined to be a peptide hormone formed from 10 amino acids. This was the first instance where an insect peptide hormone had been identified.
Parathyroid hormone
PTH was one of the first hormones to be shown to use the G-protein, adenylyl cyclase second messenger system.
Testosterone benzoate
Testosterone benzoate, or testosterone 17β-benzoate, also known as androst-4-en-17β-ol-3-one 17β-benzoate, is a synthetic, injected anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS) and an androgen ester – specifically, the benzoate C17β ester of testosterone – which was never marketed. It is a prodrug of testosterone and, when administered via intramuscular injection, is associated with a long-lasting depot effect and extended duration of action. The drug was first described in 1936 and was the first androgen ester and ester of testosterone to be synthesized.
Acetothiolutamide
Acetothiolutamide is a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) derived from the nonsteroidal antiandrogen bicalutamide that was described in 2002 and was one of the first SARMs to be discovered and developed. It is a high-affinity, selective ligand of the androgen receptor (AR) (K = 2.1–4.9 nM), where it acts as a full agonist "in vitro", and has "in vitro" potency comparable to that of testosterone. However, "in vivo", acetothiolutamide displayed overall negligible androgenic effects, though significant (albeit very low) anabolic effects were observed at high doses. In addition, notable antiandrogen effects were observed in castrated male rats treated with testosterone propionate. The discrepancy between the "in vitro" and "in vivo" actions of acetothiolutamide was determined to be related to rapid plasma clearance and extensive hepatic metabolism into a variety of metabolites with differing pharmacological activity, including AR partial agonism and antagonism. In accordance with its poor metabolic stability, acetothiolutamide is not orally bioavailable, and shows activity only via injected routes such as subcutaneous and intravenous.
Morphine
Morphine was discovered as the first active alkaloid extracted from the opium poppy plant in December 1804 in Paderborn, Germany, by Friedrich Sertürner. In 1817 Sertürner reported experiments in which he administered morphine to himself, three young boys, three dogs, and a mouse; all four people almost died. Sertürner originally named the substance "morphium" after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus, as it has a tendency to cause sleep. Sertürner's morphium was six times stronger than opium. He hypothesized that, because lower doses of the drug were needed, it would be less addictive. However Sertürner became addicted to the drug, warning that "I consider it my duty to attract attention to the terrible effects of this new substance I called morphium in order that calamity may be averted."
Oxytocin
Oxytocin (Oxt) is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide. Oxytocin is normally produced by the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary. It plays a role in social bonding, sexual reproduction, childbirth, and the period after childbirth. Oxytocin is released into the bloodstream as a hormone in response to stretching of the cervix and uterus during labor and with stimulation of the nipples from breastfeeding. This helps with birth, bonding with the baby, and milk production. Oxytocin was discovered by Henry Dale in 1906. Its molecular structure was determined in 1952. Oxytocin is also used as a medication to facilitate childbirth.
Organizational-Activational Hypothesis
The Organizational-Activational Hypothesis states that steroid hormones permanently organize the nervous system during early development, which is reflected in adult male or female typical behaviors. In adulthood, the same steroid hormones activate, modulate, and inhibit these behaviors. This idea was revolutionary when first published in 1959 because no other previous experiment had demonstrated that adult behaviors could be determined hormonally during early development.
Thyrotropin-releasing hormone
The seleke of TRH was first determined, and the hormone synthesized, by Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally in 1969. Both parties insisted their labs determined the sequence first: Schally first suggested the possibility in 1966, but abandoned it after Guillemin proposed TRH was not actually a peptide. Guillemin's chemist began concurring with these results in 1969, as NIH threatened to cut off funding for the project, leading both parties to return to work on synthesis.
Elwood V. Jensen
Jensen worked closely with Nobel laureate Charles Huggins; he joined the research team at the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer (now the Ben May Department of Cancer Research) in 1951 and became director after Huggins retired. Jensen first described the estrogen receptor in 1958 and subsequently discovered the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors along with a unifying mechanism that regulates embryonic development and diverse metabolic pathways.
Plant hormone
Plant hormones (also known as phytohormones) are signal molecules produced within plants, that occur in extremely low concentrations. Plant hormones control all aspects of growth and development, from embryogenesis, the regulation of organ size, pathogen defense, stress tolerance and through to reproductive development. Unlike in animals (in which hormone production is restricted to specialized glands) each plant cell is capable of producing hormones. The term 'phytohormone' was coined by Went and Thimann and used in the title of their book in 1937.
George Rosenkranz
Attracting young chemists such as Carl Djerassi, Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni was critical to Syntex's first big success. The Mayo clinic had reported that the steroid hormone cortisone was an effective anti-inflammatory, capable of relieving painful rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. However, as described by Djerassi, "Until 1951, the only source of cortisone was through an extraordinarily complex process of 36 different chemical transformations starting from animal bile acids." Several prominent groups of international scientists were attempting to be the first to synthesize cortisone. Rosenkranz's team started working in two shifts, and their dedication paid off. In 1951, Rosenkranz, Djerassi, and their fellow researchers submitted a paper on the synthesis of cortisone, edging out reports from Harvard and Merck by a matter of weeks.
Having successfully synthesized cortisone, the researchers at Syntex continued to work on the synthesis of progesterone. A female sex hormone, progesterone was used to help pregnant women avoid miscarriages, and to treat infertility. Five months later, under the direction of Rosenkranz and Carl Djerassi, the last step of the synthesis of norethisterone (norethindrone) was successfully completed by Luis E. Miramontes, and Syntex applied for a patent, which was granted as US patent 2,744,122 on May 1, 1956. Syntex initially reached an agreement with the American company Parke-Davis to market norethisterone as "Norlutin" for the treatment of gynecological disorders, which was approved by the FDA in 1957. Parke-Davis however refused to develop Syntex's norethisterone as a contraceptive over concerns about a possible Catholic boycott of its other products. This delay placed Syntex at a disadvantage, but by 1962, they had partnered with Johnson & Johnson's Ortho division to introduce the birth control pill "Ortho-Novum", which used Syntex's norethisterone. In March 1964, the FDA approved Syntex's version of "Ortho-Novum" with the brand name "Norinyl" (norethisterone 2 mg + mestranol 100 µg). In March 1964, the FDA also approved Parke-Davis's version of the German company Schering's oral contraceptive "Anovlar" with the brand name "Norlestrin" (norethisterone acetate 2.5 mg + ethinylestradiol 50 µg).
Gordon Alles
Gordon A. Alles (November 26, 1901 – January 21, 1963), was an American chemist and pharmacologist who did much research on the isolation and properties of insulin for the treatment of diabetics. He is also credited with discovering and publishing the psychological effects of amphetamine, and for methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). He is the first person to have prepared amphetamine sulfate, although not the amphetamine molecule. Alles first reported the physiological properties amphetamine as a synthetic analog of ephedrine, and therefore received credit for this discovery. He enjoyed large royalties from Smith, Kline & French (SKF) because he sold his patent rights for amphetamine to the company and it enjoyed large sales. Several popular products sold by SKF contained amphetamine including Benzedrine pills and inhalers, Dexedrine pills, and Dexamyl tablets. Counterfeit drugs appeared, trying to violate Alles' 'weak' patent, e.g., "Profetamine".
Arthur Riggs (geneticist)
Riggs and Itakura collaborated with Herbert Boyer at Genentech, and used recombinant DNA technology to become the first to produce a human protein in E. coli. Following the advice of Riggs and Itakura, the group successfully produced the hormone Somatostatin in 1977 as a proof of concept before they attempted to work with the more complicated insulin molecule. They were able to link somatostatin to a larger protein, beta-galactosidase, produce it in E. coli, isolate it, and then separate the somatostatin from the galactosidase. Somatostatin was the first mammalian hormone to be produced in a bacterium.
Testosterone
The Organon group in the Netherlands were the first to isolate the hormone, identified in a May 1935 paper "On Crystalline Male Hormone from Testicles (Testosterone)". They named the hormone "testosterone", from the stems of "testicle" and "sterol", and the suffix of "ketone". The structure was worked out by Schering's Adolf Butenandt, at the "Chemisches Institut" of Technical University in Gdańsk.
Hormonal IUDs
Hormonal IUDs were developed in the 1970s following the development of the copper IUD in the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. Antonio Scommenga, working at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, discovered that administering progesterone inside the uterus could have contraceptive benefits. With knowledge of Scommegna's work, a Finnish doctor, Jouni Valtteri Tapani Luukkainen, created the 'T'-shaped IUD that released progesterone, marketed as the Progestasert System in 1976. This IUD had a short, 1-year lifespan and never achieved widespread popularity. Following this relative lack of success, Dr. Luukkainen replaced the progesterone with the hormone levonorgestrel to be released over a five-year period, creating what is now Mirena.
Kenneth Callow
In the 1930s Callow became interested in the structure and action of sex hormones and identifying steroids in urine. In a 1936 paper, written with Frank Young, a footnote states "The term steroids is proposed as generic name for the group of compounds comprising the sterols, bile acids, heart poisons, saponins and sex hormones." Callow claimed that this was the first use of the term "steroids". 
He showed that androgens were excreted in the urine in similar amounts in men, women and eunuchs, which at the time was surprising. His conclusion was that these substances were produced by the adrenal cortex as well as by the gonads. This conclusion was supported by findings made jointly with A.C. Crooke, working at the London Hospital, that patients with Cushing's syndrome, caused by a tumour of the adrenals, had very high levels of androgenic substances in the urine.
Oscar Riddle
In his time, Riddle was one of the top biologists in the United States. His research spanned endocrinology, the physiology of reproduction, animal pigmentation, and the nature and functional basis of sex. He is most remembered for his research into the major pituitary hormone prolactin. Riddle studied under Jacques Loeb, and he and his colleagues were the first to isolate prolactin, which was named by Riddle in 1932. Riddle discovered that prolactin injections inhibited gonad growth in males and produced maternal behavior in females. His research demonstrated that prolactin and other hormones of the frontal lobe are disintegrated by the enzyme trypsin. His work also showed that growth is a synergistic response to the hormones prolactin and thyrotropin. He earned a degree in law in 1933 and was featured on the cover of TIME in January 1939. Riddle retired in 1945.
Endocrinology
The earliest study of endocrinology began in China. The Chinese were isolating sex and pituitary hormones from human urine and using them for medicinal purposes by 200 BCE. They used many complex methods, such as sublimation of steroid hormones. Another method specified by Chinese texts—the earliest dating to 1110—specified the use of saponin (from the beans of "Gleditsia sinensis") to extract hormones, but gypsum (containing calcium sulfate) was also known to have been used.
Animal sexual behaviour
Research on oxytocin's role in the animal brain suggests that it plays less of a role in behaviours of love and affection than previously believed. "When oxytocin was first discovered in 1909, it was thought mostly to influence a mother’s labour contractions and milk let-down. Then, in the 1990s, research with prairie voles found that giving them a dose of oxytocin resulted in the formation of a bond with their future mate (Azar, 40)." Oxytocin has since been treated by the media as the sole player in the "love and mating game" in mammals. This view, however, is proving to be false as, "most hormones don’t influence behaviour directly. Rather, they affect thinking and emotions in variable ways (Azar, 40)." There is much more involved in sexual behaviour in the mammalian animal than oxytocin and vasopressin can explain.
History of biology
Physiologists such as Claude Bernard explored (through vivisection and other experimental methods) the chemical and physical functions of living bodies to an unprecedented degree, laying the groundwork for endocrinology (a field that developed quickly after the discovery of the first hormone, secretin, in 1902), biomechanics, and the study of nutrition and digestion. The importance and diversity of experimental physiology methods, within both medicine and biology, grew dramatically over the second half of the 19th century. The control and manipulation of life processes became a central concern, and experiment was placed at the center of biological education.
Autopharmacology
Historically, the first approach to the concept of autopharmacology began with British physiologist and pharmacologist Henry Dale in the 1910s, discovered the role of acetylcholine in synaptic transmission, and later proved by Austrian physiologist Otto Loewi, to be the neurotransmitter involved in the proximal synapses of the autonomic nervous system (initially named "Vagusstoff" by Loewi, and later identified as acetylcholine). The same happened to another autonomic neurotransmitter, noradrenaline ("Akzeleransstoff" by Loewi), which later proved to be chemically similar to a long used pharmacological agent, adrenaline, a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. Both scientists were awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their pioneering and important contributions.
Thyroid
French chemist Bernard Courtois discovered Iodine in 1811, and in 1896 Eugen Baumann documented it as the central ingredient in the thryoid gland. He did this by boiling the thyroid glands of a thousand sheep, and named the precipitate, a combination of the thyroid hormones, 'iodothyrin'. David Marine in 1907 provided iodine is necessary for thyroid function. Thyroxine itself was first isolated in 1914 and synthesized in 1927, and trirodothyroxine in 1952. The conversion of T4 to T3 was discovered in 1970. The process of discovering TSH took place over the early to mid twentieth century. TRH was discovered by Polish endocrinologist Andrew Schally in 1970, contributing in part to his Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1977.
Endocrinology
In 1902 William Bayliss and Ernest Starling performed an experiment in which they observed that acid instilled into the duodenum caused the pancreas to begin secretion, even after they had removed all nervous connections between the two. The same response could be produced by injecting extract of jejunum mucosa into the jugular vein, showing that some factor in the mucosa was responsible. They named this substance "secretin" and coined the term "hormone" for chemicals that act in this way.
Estetrol (medication)
Estetrol was discovered in 1965 by Egon Diczfalusy and coworkers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, via isolation from the urine of pregnant women. Basic research on estetrol was conducted from 1965 to 1984. It was established that estetrol is exclusively synthesized in the fetal liver and hence that it is a fetal estrogen. By 1984, estetrol was regarded as a weak estrogen; interest fell, and research was virtually abandoned. Subsequently a project at Pantarhei Bioscience was started to investigate estetrol with state-of-the-art technologies in 2001, with the sole reasoning that estetrol must have some biological role or function of importance as it would not be produced in such high quantities in the fetus otherwise. By 2008, estetrol was of major interest for potential clinical use, and development was in-progress. As of 2018, it is in mid- to late-stage clinical development for a variety of indications.https://adisinsight.springer.com/drugs/800034634 It was initially developed by Pantarhei Bioscience and Estetra SA (subsequently renamed Estetra SPRL), and is now being developed by Mithra Pharmaceuticals.
Doctor Hormone
Doctor Hormone was an elderly scientist who, having discovered the secret of life itself, injected himself with a "youth hormone" which restored his body to youthful vigor. After agents from Urasia stole his formulas from his laboratory to aid in their nation's wars against its neighbors, Doctor Hormone and his granddaughter Jane traveled to the besieged nation of Novoslavia, where he used his scientific expertise to help battle the Urasian invaders, who were using the hormones to create armies of part animal/part human men. Later, Doctor Hormone was employed as a researcher for the United States Army and worked in a laboratory at Fort Knox.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy
Bioidentical hormones were first used for menopausal symptom relief in the 1930s, after Canadian researcher James Collip developed a method to extract an orally active estrogen from the urine of pregnant women and marketed it as the active agent in a product called Emmenin. It was supplanted on the market when its manufacturer, Ayerst (later Wyeth Pharmaceuticals), began producing the more easily manufactured conjugated equine estrogens in 1941 under the brand name Premarin; by 1992, Premarin was the most widely prescribed drug in the United States.
Antiandrogen
Antigonadotropins like estrogens and progestogens were both first introduced in the 1930s. The beneficial effects of androgen deprivation via surgical castration or high-dose estrogen therapy on prostate cancer were discovered in 1941. AR antagonists were first discovered in the early 1960s. The steroidal antiandrogen cyproterone acetate was discovered in 1961 and introduced in 1973 and is often described as the first antiandrogen to have been marketed. However, spironolactone was introduced in 1959, although its antiandrogen effects were not recognized or taken advantage of until later and were originally an unintended off-target action of the drug. In addition to spironolactone, chlormadinone acetate and megestrol acetate are steroidal antiandrogens that are weaker than cyproterone acetate but were also introduced earlier, in the 1960s. Other early steroidal antiandrogens that were developed around this time but were never marketed include benorterone (SKF-7690; 17α-methyl-"B"-nortestosterone), BOMT (Ro 7-2340), cyproterone (SH-80881), and trimethyltrienolone (R-2956).
Endocrinology
Neurohormones were first identified by Otto Loewi in 1921. He incubated a frog's heart (innervated with its vagus nerve attached) in a saline bath, and left in the solution for some time. The solution was then used to bathe a non-innervated second heart. If the vagus nerve on the first heart was stimulated, negative inotropic (beat amplitude) and chronotropic (beat rate) activity were seen in both hearts. This did not occur in either heart if the vagus nerve was not stimulated. The vagus nerve was adding something to the saline solution. The effect could be blocked using atropine, a known inhibitor to heart vagal nerve stimulation. Clearly, something was being secreted by the vagus nerve and affecting the heart. The "vagusstuff" (as Loewi called it) causing the myotropic (muscle enhancing) effects was later identified to be acetylcholine and norepinephrine. Loewi won the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
Selmar Aschheim
The two doctors published the findings of the hormone in a treatise titled "Das Hormon des Hypophysenvorderlappens". At the time they believed that the gonadotrophin was produced by the anterior pituitary, however further research in the 1940s demonstrated that the placenta was responsible for the elaboration of the hormone.
Progynon
Progynon was an orally active formulation of estrogen that was developed by Adolf Butenandt at Schering and introduced in Germany in 1928. It was reportedly the first sex hormone product and hence also the first estrogen product to be introduced for medical use. Progynon was originally an ovarian or placental extract, but Schering soon switched for economic reasons to using the urine of women who were in late pregnancy. This form of Progynon was essentially the same product as Emmenin, which was developed by James Collip at Ayerst and introduced in Canada in 1930 (and in the in 1934).
David Landsborough Thomson
David Landsborough Thomson F.R.S.C., (1901 - 1964) was a Canadian biochemist, best known for the co-discovery of Adrenocorticotropic hormone (adreno-cortical thyroid hormone or ACTH) and as the vice-principal of McGill University. ACTH was co-discovered by Evelyn M. Anderson, James Bertram Collip and Thomson. In a paper published in 1933, they explained its function in the body.
Enteroendocrine cell
The very discovery of hormones occurred during studies of how the digestive system regulates its activities, as explained at "Secretin § Discovery".
Parathyroid gland
Parathyroid hormone was isolated in 1923 by Adolph M. Hanson and 1925 by James B. Collip. Studies of parathyroid hormone levels by Roger Guillemin, Andrew Schally and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow led to the development of immunoassays capable of measuring body substances and a Nobel Prize in 1977.
Testosterone buciclate
Testosterone buciclate (developmental code names 20 Aet-1, CDB-1781) is a synthetic, injected anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS) which was never marketed. It was developed in collaboration by the Contraceptive Development Branch (CDB) of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1970s and early 1980s for use in androgen replacement therapy for male hypogonadism and as a potential male contraceptive. It was first described in 1986. The drug is an androgen ester – specifically, the C17β buciclate (4-butylcyclohexane-1-carboxylate) ester of testosterone – and is a prodrug of testosterone with a very long duration of action when used as a depot via intramuscular injection.
Flutamide
Flutamide was first synthesized in 1967 by Neri and colleagues at Schering Plough Corporation. It was originally synthesized as a bacteriostatic agent, but was subsequently, and serendipitously found to possess antiandrogen activity. The code name of flutamide during development was SCH-13521. Clinical research of the medication began in 1971, and it was first marketed in 1983, specifically in Chile under the brand name Drogenil and in West Germany under the brand name Flugerel. Flutamide was not introduced in the United States until 1989; it was specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer in combination with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue. The medication was first studied for the treatment of hirsutism in women in women in 1989. It was the first "pure antiandrogen" to be studied in the treatment of hirsutism. Flutamide was the first NSAA to be introduced, and was followed by nilutamide in 1989 and then bicalutamide in 1995.
Hippulin
Hippulin, also known as Δ-14-isoestrone, as well as 14-isoestra-1,3,5(10),8-tetraen-3-ol-17-one, is a naturally occurring estrogen found in horses and an isomer of equilin. The compound, likely in sodium sulfate form, is a component of conjugated estrogens (Premarin), a pharmaceutical extract of the urine of pregnant mares, though it is present only in small amounts in pregnant mare urine. It has been reported by possess either equivalent estrogenic activity to that of equilin or only slight estrogenic activity. The compound was first described in 1932.
Natural product
Lavoisier showed at the end of the 18th century that organic substances consisted of a limited number of elements: primarily carbon and hydrogen and supplemented by oxygen and nitrogen. He quickly focused on the isolation of these substances, often because they had an interesting pharmacological activity. Plants were the main source of such compounds, especially alkaloids and glycosides. It was long been known that opium, a sticky mixture of alkaloids (including codeine, morphine, noscapine, thebaine, and papaverine) from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), possessed a narcotic and at the same time mind-altering properties. By 1805, morphine had already been isolated by the German chemist Friedrich Sertürner and in the 1870s it was discovered that boiling morphine with acetic anhydride produced a substance with a strong pain suppressive effect: heroin. In 1815, Eugène Chevreul isolated cholesterol, a crystalline substance, from animal tissue that belongs to the class of steroids, and in 1820 strychnine, an alkaloid was isolated.
Local hormone
The Gastrin family is a group of peptides evolutionarily similar in structure and function. Commonly synthesized in antroduodenal G-cells. Regulate gastric function along with gastric acid secretion and mucosal growth.The Secretin family are peptides that act as local hormones which regulate regulate activity of G-protein coupled receptors. Most often found in the pancreas and the intestines. Secretin was discovered in 1902 by E. H. Starling. It was later linked to chemical regulation and was the first substance to be deemed a hormone.
3. Mark H. Whitnall, William G. Haynes, David J. Webb (1997). Principles of Medical Biology.
Alma Joslyn Whiffen-Barksdale
In 1955, Barksdale became a Research Associate at the New York Botanical Garden and returned to the study of aquatic fungi. From 1955 to 1961, she expanded existing research on the species "Achlya bisexualis", focusing on the fungus' unique sexual reproductive hormones. It had been previously concluded by fellow mycologist, Dr.John Raper, that the development of sexual organs in "A. bisexualis" was mediated by the exchange of hormones between the male and female strains of the fungus. Over the course of 10 years of research, Dr. Barksdale discovered and isolated the sex hormone antheridiol: a steroid released by the female strains of "A. bisexualis", which stimulates the growth of antheridia when introduced to male strains of the fungus. Antheridiol also stimulates the release of a second hormone, when introduced to the male strains, which promoted the growth of oogonia in the female strains. Her discoveries sparked a new wave of interest in the Achlya genus as a research subject over the following decades, and she and Dr. Raper are jointly considered the primary establishing figures in "Achlya" research, according to the retrospective on her life published in the 1981 issue of "Achlya Newsletter."
Norethisterone
Norethisterone was synthesized for the first time by chemists Luis Miramontes, Carl Djerassi, and George Rosenkranz at Syntex in Mexico City in 1951. It was derived from ethisterone, and was found to possess about 20-fold greater potency as a progestogen in comparison. Norethisterone was the first highly active oral progestogen to be synthesized, and was preceded (as a progestogen) by progesterone (1934), ethisterone (1938), 19-norprogesterone (1944), and 17α-methylprogesterone (1949) as well as by nandrolone (1950), whereas noretynodrel (1952) and norethandrolone (1953) followed the synthesis of norethisterone. The drug was first introduced, alone as "Norlutin", in the United States in 1957. Norethisterone was subsequently introduced in combination with mestranol as "Ortho-Novum" in the United States in 1963, and was the second progestin, after noretynodrel in 1960, to be used in an oral contraceptive. In 1964, additional contraceptive preparations containing norethisterone in combination with mestranol or EE, such as "Norlestrin" and "Norinyl", were marketed in the United States.
Testosterone
A testicular action was linked to circulating blood fractions – now understood to be a family of androgenic hormones – in the early work on castration and testicular transplantation in fowl by Arnold Adolph Berthold (1803–1861). Research on the action of testosterone received a brief boost in 1889, when the Harvard professor Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817–1894), then in Paris, self-injected subcutaneously a "rejuvenating elixir" consisting of an extract of dog and guinea pig testicle. He reported in "The Lancet" that his vigor and feeling of well-being were markedly restored but the effects were transient, and Brown-Séquard's hopes for the compound were dashed. Suffering the ridicule of his colleagues, he abandoned his work on the mechanisms and effects of androgens in human beings.
Pheromone
The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek φερω "pheroo" ('I carry') and ὁρμων "hormon" ('stimulating'). Pheromones are also sometimes classified as ecto-hormones. They were researched earlier by various scientists, including Jean-Henri Fabre, Joseph A. Lintner, Adolf Butenandt, and ethologist Karl von Frisch who called them various names, like for instance "alarm substances". These chemical messengers are transported outside of the body and affect neurocircuits, including the autonomous nervous system with hormone or cytokine mediated physiological changes, inflammatory signaling, immune system changes and/or behavioral change in the recipient. They proposed the term to describe chemical signals from conspecifics that elicit innate behaviors soon after the German biochemist Adolf Butenandt had characterized the first such chemical, bombykol, a chemically well-characterized pheromone released by the female silkworm to attract mates.
Christine Jorgensen
Jorgensen was faced with a world that placed strong societal emphasis on adhering to gender binaries and strict notions of masculinity and femininity. When Jorgensen was first exposed to the book "The Male Hormone" in the 1940s, the same traditional ideas of masculinity were reinforced through its pages. As the book posed, masculinity could be restored to individuals by utilizing male hormones. It was then that Jorgensen realized that the attitudes of the book were not aligned with her personal experiences and questions about gender identity. She refused to dismiss her personal sentiments and questions as confusion about sexuality and began taking estrogen. The significance of Jorgensen choosing this path was one of the first stages of transgender identity being legitimized and explored as a subject for both Jorgensen and the American public. Jorgensen's highly publicized transition helped bring to light gender identity and shaped a new culture of more inclusive ideas and accepting notions about the subject.
Horme
The goddess' name was given to hormones in the early twentieth century when their role in driving bodily functions was recognised.
Evelyn M. Anderson
Evelyn M. Anderson (March 20, 1899 – June 8, 1985) was an American physiologist and biochemist, most known for her co-discovery of Adrenocorticotropic hormone (adreno-cortical thyroid hormone or ACTH) in 1934.
Testosterone acetate
Testosterone acetate (brand names Aceto-Sterandryl, Aceto-Testoviron, Amolisin, Androtest A, Deposteron, Farmatest, Perandrone A), or testosterone ethanoate, also known as androst-4-en-17β-ol-3-one 17β-acetate, is an androgen and anabolic steroid and a testosterone ester. The drug was first described in 1936 and was one of the first androgen esters and esters of testosterone to be synthesized.
Juvenile hormone
JH was isolated in 1965 by Williams and Slama and the first molecular structure of a final six was solved in 1967.
Ethisterone
Ethisterone, also known as ethinyltestosterone, pregneninolone, and anhydrohydroxyprogesterone and formerly sold under the brand names Proluton C and Pranone among others, is a progestin medication which was used in the treatment of gynecological disorders but is now no longer available. It was used alone and was not formulated in combination with an estrogen. The medication is taken by mouth.
Side effects of ethisterone include masculinization among others. Ethisterone is a progestin, or a synthetic progestogen, and hence is an agonist of the progesterone receptor, the biological target of progestogens like progesterone. It has some androgenic and anabolic activity and no other important hormonal activity.
Ethisterone was discovered in 1938 and was introduced for medical use in Germany in 1939 and in the United States in 1945. It was the second progestogen to be marketed, following injected progesterone in 1934, and was both the first orally active progestogen and the first progestin to be introduced. Ethisterone was followed by the improved and much more widely used and known progestin norethisterone in 1957.
Prolactin
Discovered in non-human animals around 1930 by Oscar Riddle and confirmed in humans in 1970 by Henry Friesen prolactin is a peptide hormone, encoded by the "PRL" gene.
Estratetraenol
Estratetraenol, also known as estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol, is an endogenous steroid found in women that has been described as having pheromone-like activities in primates, including humans. Estratetraenol is synthesized from androstadienone by aromatase likely in the ovaries, and is related to the estrogen sex hormones, yet has no known estrogenic effects. It was first identified from the urine of pregnant women.
Bertold Wiesner
During 1926 while Wiesner was still in Austria, he began investigating the role of hormones in regulating fertility and their impact on fetal development. Wiesner also researched the possibility of preventing and terminating pregnancy by physiological means without mechanical intervention based on oral ingestion of manufactured substances containing hormones. He presented his first paper at the First International Congress for Sex Research organized by the psychiatrist Albert Moll in Berlin.
Growth hormone in sports
Human growth hormone occurs naturally in the human body. Use of exogenous human growth hormone (HGH), via injection, was originally for medical purposes until athletes began abusing HGH with the goal of increasing their abilities. Before recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH) was developed in 1981, HGH was only available from cadavers. The arrival of rHGH combined with other peptide hormone advancements has increased the availability of HGH on both the legitimate and black markets. The first description of the use of GM as a doping agent was Dan Duchaine’s “Underground Steroid handbook” which emerged from California in 1982; it is not known where and when GM was first used this way. In 1989 the International Olympic Committee became the first to brand human growth hormone a banned substance. Although abuse of human growth hormone for athletic purposes is illegal in the U.S., over the past decade it appears that abuse of HGH is present in all levels of sport. This is fueled at least in part by the fact that HGH is more difficult to detect than most other performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids. Athletes competing in power sports, bodybuilding, professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, swimming, baseball, strength sports, track and field, cycling, soccer, weight lifting, skiing and endurance sports have been said to abuse human growth hormone, including in combination with other performance-enhancing drugs such as androgenic anabolic steroids including testosterone, certain products which claim to enhance HGH, and erythropoietin (among others).
Prasterone
DHEA was discovered, via isolation from male urine, by Adolf Butenandt and in 1934, and the compound was isolated from human blood plasma by Migeon and Plager in 1954. DHEA sulfate, the 3β-sulfate ester of DHEA, was isolated from urine in 1944, and was found by Baulieu to be the most abundant steroid hormone in human plasma in 1954. From its discovery in 1934 until 1959, DHEA was referred to by a number of different names in the literature, including "dehydroandrosterone", "transdehydroandrosterone", "dehydroisoandrosterone", and "androstenolone". The name "dehydroepiandrosterone", also known as "DHEA", was first proposed by Fieser in 1949, and subsequently became the most commonly used name of the hormone. For decades after its discovery, DHEA was considered to be an inactive compound that served mainly as an intermediate in the production of androgens and estrogens from cholesterol. In 1965, an association between DHEA sulfate levels and aging was reported by De Nee and Vermeulen. Following this, DHEA became of interest to the scientific community, and numerous studies assessing the relationship between DHEA and DHEA sulfate levels and aging were conducted.
Estradiol
The discovery of estrogen is usually credited to the American scientists Edgar Allen and Edward A. Doisy. In 1923, they observed that injection of fluid from porcine ovarian follicles produced pubertal- and estrus-type changes (including vaginal, uterine, and mammary gland changes and sexual receptivity) in sexually immature, ovariectomized mice and rats. These findings demonstrated the existence of a hormone which is produced by the ovaries and is involved in sexual maturation and reproduction. At the time of its discovery, Allen and Doisy did not name the hormone, and simply referred to it as an "ovarian hormone" or "follicular hormone"; others referred to it variously as "feminin", "folliculin", "menformon", "thelykinin", and "emmenin". In 1926, Parkes and Bellerby coined the term "estrin" to describe the hormone on the basis of it inducing estrus in animals. Estrone was isolated and purified independently by Allen and Doisy and German scientist Adolf Butenandt in 1929, and estriol was isolated and purified by Marrian in 1930; they were the first estrogens to be identified.
Discovery and development of antiandrogens
Flutamide became the first NSAA to be tested clinically. Later the NSAAs bicalutamide and nilutamide were developed. The alleged advantages of these compounds were that they did not affect libido or potency like the other centrally acting compounds under development, luteinizing-hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists and cyproterone acetate. But this theory did not prove to be true. These NSAAs eventually crossed the blood–brain barrier, like cyproterone acetate, leading to a subsequent increase in serum testosterone levels.
Kenneth V. Thimann
Kenneth Vivian Thimann (August 5, 1904 – January 15, 1997) was an English-American plant physiologist and microbiologist known for his studies of plant hormones, which were widely influential in agriculture and horticulture. He isolated and determined the structure of auxin, the first known plant hormone. He spent most of his early career (1935–1965) at Harvard University, and his later career (1965 - ) at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Oxytocin (medication)
Oxytocin became the first polypeptide hormone to be sequenced or synthesized. Du Vigneaud was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1955 for his work.
Endocrinology
Recent work in endocrinology focuses on the molecular mechanisms responsible for triggering the effects of hormones. The first example of such work being done was in 1962 by Earl Sutherland. Sutherland investigated whether hormones enter cells to evoke action, or stayed outside of cells. He studied norepinephrine, which acts on the liver to convert glycogen into glucose via the activation of the phosphorylase enzyme. He homogenized the liver into a membrane fraction and soluble fraction (phosphorylase is soluble), added norepinephrine to the membrane fraction, extracted its soluble products, and added them to the first soluble fraction. Phosphorylase activated, indicating that norepinephrine's target receptor was on the cell membrane, not located intracellularly. He later identified the compound as cyclic AMP (cAMP) and with his discovery created the concept of second-messenger-mediated pathways. He, like Loewi, won the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work in endocrinology.
Carl Richard Moore
Carl Moore is noted for his studies of the reproductive tract of male mammals and the physiology of spermatozoa. In 1929, Carl Moore, T. F. Gallagher and F. C. Koch became the first to extract the male sex hormone androsterone.
Ghrelin
Ghrelin was discovered after the ghrelin receptor (called growth hormone secretagogue type 1A receptor or GHS-R) was discovered in 1996 and was reported in 1999. The hormone name is based on its role as a "growth hormone-releasing peptide", with reference to the Proto-Indo-European root "gʰre-", meaning "to grow".
Dihydrotestosterone
DHT was first synthesized by Adolf Butenandt and his colleagues in 1935. It was prepared via hydrogenation of testosterone, which had been discovered earlier that year. DHT was introduced for medical use as an AAS in 1953, and was noted to be more potent than testosterone but with reduced androgenicity. It was not elucidated to be an endogenous substance until 1956, when it was shown to be formed from testosterone in rat liver homogenates. In addition, the biological importance of DHT was not realized until the early 1960s, when it was found to be produced by 5α-reductase from circulating testosterone in target tissues like the prostate gland and seminal vesicles and was found to be more potent than testosterone in bioassays. The biological functions of DHT in humans became much more clearly defined upon the discovery and characterization of 5α-reductase type II deficiency in 1974. DHT was the last major sex hormone, the others being testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone, to be discovered, and is unique in that it is the only major sex hormone that functions principally as an intracrine and paracrine hormone rather than as an endocrine hormone.
Josephine Ball
Ball’s research on the role of hormones and behavior was some of the earliest in the field, contemporaneous with work of Willam Caldwell (W.C) Young and preceding the work of Frank A. Beach, both of whom were considered founders of the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology. Ball's first paper in 1926 represented the earliest work on the role of steroid hormones on non-sexual behaviors, in this case learning and memory in rats. Her work on the role of hormones and reproductive behavior in both rats and macaques throughout the 1930's and early 1940's constituted fundamental contributions to the field. Beach once commented at a meeting that if a conference on reproductive behavior had been held in the 1930’s, it would have three participants: W.C. Young, Josephine Ball, and himself. Beach also considered Ball a friend.