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After the injection of cortisol into the toad Xenopus laevis, the concentration of steroid in the main circulatory system was much higher than that in the limb muscles. The concentration of corticosteroids in the blood fell at a faster rate than that in muscle. The particulate fraction of toad muscle homogenate bound added cortisol and some of it was not removed by repeated washing of the tissue with fresh medium. Bound steroid was not confined to any one subcellular fraction. The small particle fraction ('microsomes') contained the greatest proportion of steroid and the highest steroid concentration. The loss of corticosteroids from intact and washed particle preparations of toad gastrocnemius was not influenced by temperature over the range of 17–37°.

Copper, zinc and manganese (between 26 and 31 mM) inhibited the release of cortisol bound to muscle particles; p-chloromercuribenzoate (2 mM) and anoxia had no effect. A variation in pH from 2 to 10 made little difference to the rate of steroid release by muscle particles suspended in 0·15 M-KC1. The results suggest that the release of strongly bound steroids from muscle does not involve an enzymic mechanism.