Effects of halogenated analogues of cortisol and progesterone upon hair growth in castrated mice.

Several synthetic analogues of cortisol and progesterone were compared to cortisol in their effect of inhibiting the hair growth waves in castrated male C3H/Ep mice. This inhibitory effect was enhanced by fluorination at C-9 alpha and by methylation at C-16 alpha; it decreased by hydroxylation at C-17 alpha and C-21, by removal of hydroxyl group at C-11 and by the addition to bromine to C-12 alpha; it was not modified by oxidation of the hydroxyl group at C-11 or by the delta 1-4 substitution. There was a correlation between the glucocorticoid and hair inhibiting potencies in the cortisol analogues, but some progesterone analogues with very low glucocorticoid activity have marked hair inhibitory effects. No relation was found with the mineralocorticoid effects.