In rats, oral oleoyl-DHEA is rapidly hydrolysed and converted to DHEA-sulphate

BMC Pharmacology

Table 1 Tissue and organ distribution of DHEA label, 24 h after the administration of a single gavage of 35 nmol/g of tritium DHEA or oleoyl-DHEA to Wistar rats

tissue/organ	units	oleoyl-DHEA gavage		DHEA gavage		ANOVA (P)
		male	female	male	female	G	S
liver	nmol/g	3.24 ± 0.93	4.00 ± 1.21	4.30 ± 1.43	5.43 ± 0.87	NS	NS
	nmol	39.3 ± 10.9	31.9 ± 10.0	53.5 ± 18.2	46.1 ± 8.2
kidney	nmol/g	1.44 ± 0.08*	0.87 ± 0.13	1.33 ± 0.20	1.26 ± 0.12	NS	0.0326
	nmol	1.34 ± 0.16	0.65 ± 0.09	1.27 ± 0.20	0.87 ± 0.06
spleen	nmol/g	0.40 ± 0.08	0.14 ± 0.02	1.18 ± 0.54	0.26 ± 0.05	NS	0.0439
	pmol	362 ± 48	145 ± 23	846 ± 439	238 ± 53
adrenal glands	nmol/g	2.35 ± 0.27*	0.59 ± 0.11	1.85 ± 0.22	1.46 ± 0.12	NS	0.0000
	pmol	130 ± 20	54 ± 10	122 ± 26	144 ± 29
subcutaneousWAT ¹	pmol/g	96 ± 23	398 ± 179	125 ± 53	192 ± 23	NS	NS
mesentericWAT	pmol/g	86 ± 15	303 ± 85	136 ± 30*	401 ± 58	NS	0.0002
	pmol	137 ± 52	405 ± 111	287 ± 64	567 ± 62
retroperitonealWAT	pmol/g	53 ± 9	166 ± 37	92 ± 26	134 ± 37	NS	0.0163
	pmol	84 ± 15	252 ± 55	146 ± 44	220 ± 62
perigonadalWAT ²	pmol/g	49 ± 12	120 ± 21	39 ± 11	263 ± 158	NS	NS
	pmol	106 ± 24	470 ± 79	86 ± 24	1123 ± 682
interscapularBAT	pmol/g	82 ± 13	230 ± 48	185 ± 17	350 ± 95	NS	0.092
	pmol	23 ± 3	54 ± 19	49 ± 5	76 ± 18
skeletalmuscle ³	pmol/g	102 ± 13	180 ± 13	93 ± 13	225 ± 107	NS	NS
	nmol	14.1 ± 1.9	14.5 ± 6.2	12.9 ± 1.8	20.4 ± 9.1
heart	pmol/g	113 ± 28	93 ± 6	166 ± 78	239 ± 87	NS	NS
	pmol	75 ± 18	56 ± 4	117 ± 47	130 ± 48
brain	pmol/g	154 ± 30	100 ± 25	178 ± 76	386 ± 129	NS	NS
	pmol	138 ± 27	69 ± 28	196 ± 85	354 ± 104

¹ No data were available for whole-body mass of subcutaneous WAT. ² Epididymal fat in males and periovaric fat in females. ³ Estimated as 44 % of lean body mass.
The data are the mean ± sem of 6 different animals. WAT = white adipose tissue; BAT = brown adipose tissue. Statistical significance of the differences, 2-way ANOVA; G = effect of "gavage", i.e. differences between oleoyl-DHEA and DHEA; S = effect of sex. Paired-group differences between sex-groups (post-hoc Bonferroni test): * = P <0.05.