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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 7.
Published in final edited form as: J Investig Med. 2010 Dec;58(8):938–944. doi: 10.231/JIM.0b013e3181ff6bb8

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Steroidogenic pathways to testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Adrenal DHEA may be converted to testosterone and dihydrotestosterone via conversion through androstenedione or androstenediol as the initial step. Alternative, de novo steroidogenesis from cholesterol through the “backdoor pathway” may occur through progesterone → 17α-hydroxyprogesterone → 5α-pregnan-17α-ol-3,20-dione → 5α-pregnane-3α,17α-diol-20-one → androsterone → 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol → dihydrotestosterone.