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Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, P.O. Box 520875, Biscayne Annex, Miami, Florida 33152, U.S.A.

(Received 24 February 1976)

Ovarian secretion of oestradiol falls from 0·7 µg/day to undetectable levels shortly after parturition in the rat (Yoshinaga, Hawkins & Stocker, 1969). Administration of oestradiol during the post-partum period retards involution of the uterus and breakdown of collagen (Woessner, 1969). A significant inhibition of collagen degradation is produced by a dose of 1 µg oestradiol/day administered i.p. to parturient rats, and maximum effects are produced by 100 µg/day (Woessner, 1969). Oestradiol acts, directly or indirectly, to reduce the assayable level of collagenase in the uterus (Ryan & Woessner, 1974). The high doses of oestradiol necessary to produce these effects raise the possibility that the effects are non-specific or that there may be metabolism of oestradiol to other products that are the active compounds. This possibility has