Concentrations of human choriogonadotropin, its beta-subunit, and the core fragment of the beta-subunit in serum and urine of men and nonpregnant women.

Sensitive, specific time-resolved immunofluorometric assays were used to measure the concentrations of human choriogonadotropin (hCG), free beta-subunit (beta-hCG), and the core fragment of beta-hCG (c beta-hCG) in serum and urine of men and nonpregnant women without evidence of cancer. Concentrations of hCG and beta-hCG were measurable in 59-70% of serum samples and in 50-59% of urine samples. c beta-hCG was mostly undetectable in serum but measurable in 81% of urine samples. Concentrations were higher in women than in men, and hCG concentrations increased with age. Therefore, reference ranges based on the 97.5 percentile were calculated separately for women and men and for those < 50 and > 50 years. However, concentrations of hCG correlated much more strongly with those of follicle-stimulating hormone than with age. hCG concentrations in serum were similar to those reported before, but beta-hCG concentrations were below the detection limit of earlier assays, and the upper reference limit was one-fifth to one-tenth the cutoff concentrations used earlier. In urine, hCG and c beta-hCG were the major forms of hCG, and their concentrations were similar to those of hCG in serum.

[1]  R. Canfield,et al.  Development and Characterization of a New, Highly Specific Antibody to the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin-β Fragment* , 1991 .

[2]  A. Pala,et al.  Ectopic human chorionic gonadotropin: gynecological tumors and nonmalignant conditions. , 1980, Gynecologic oncology.

[3]  Y. Yoshimoto,et al.  Qualitative and quantitative analyses of human chorionic gonadotropin and its subunits produced by malignant tumors , 1980, Cancer.

[4]  U. Stenman,et al.  Time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay of human choriogonadotropin. , 1983, Clinical chemistry.

[5]  B. Nisula,et al.  Characterization of a discrete degradation product of the human chorionic gonadotropin beta-subunit in humans. , 1980, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[6]  R. Frydman,et al.  Physiological Studies of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG), αhCG, and βhCG as Measured by Specific Monoclonal Immunoradiometric Assays , 1987 .

[7]  R. G. Gaines Das,et al.  The International Standard for Pituitary FSH: collaborative study of the Standard and of four other purified human FSH preparations of differing molecular composition by bioassays, receptor assays and different immunoassay systems. , 1989, The Journal of endocrinology.

[8]  D. Bangham,et al.  International Reference Preparation of Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin for Immunoassay: potency estimates in various bioassay and protein binding assay systems; and International Reference Preparations of the alpha and beta subunits of human chorionic gonadotrophin for immunoassay. , 1980, The Journal of endocrinology.

[9]  U. Stenman,et al.  Pregnancy Serum Contains the β-Core Fragment of Human Choriogonadotropin , 1990 .

[10]  M. Segers,et al.  Human choriogonadotropin (hCG): comparisons between determinations of intact hCG, free hCG beta-subunit, and "total" hCG + beta in serum during the first half of high-risk pregnancy. , 1990, Clinical chemistry.

[11]  P. Fessas,et al.  Ectopic production of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) by neoplasms: The value of measurements of immunoreactive hCG in the urine as a screening procedure , 1980, Cancer.

[12]  D. McMahon,et al.  Development of Highly Sensitive Immunoassays to Measure Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, Its β-Subunit, and β Core Fragment in the Urine: Application to Malignancies , 1988 .

[13]  T. Chard,et al.  Monoclonal antibodies to human chorionic gonadotropin: implications for antigenic mapping, immunoradiometric assays, and clinical applications. , 1985, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[14]  D. Blithe,et al.  β-Core fragments are contaminants of the World Health Organization Reference Preparations of human choriogonadotrophin and its α-subunit , 1988 .

[15]  W. Odell,et al.  Purified preparations of human luteinizing hormone are contaminated with small amounts of a chorionic gonadotropin-like material. , 1991, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[16]  R. Norman,et al.  Stability of immunoreactive beta-core fragment of hCG. , 1991, Obstetrics and gynecology.

[17]  L. Cole,et al.  hCG free beta-subunit an early marker of outcome of in vitro fertilization clinical pregnancies. , 1987, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[18]  D. Hay.  Histological origins of discordant chorionic gonadotropin secretion in malignancy. , 1988, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[19]  R. Norman,et al.  Detection of a small molecular species of human chorionic gonadotropin in the urine of patients with carcinoma of the cervix and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: comparison with other assays for human chorionic gonadotropin and its fragments. , 1990, Gynecologic oncology.

[20]  E. Siris,et al.  Use of a highly sensitive and specific immunoradiometric assay for detection of human chorionic gonadotropin in urine of normal, nonpregnant, and pregnant individuals. , 1984, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[21]  J. Wands,et al.  Physiological studies of human chorionic gonadotropin and free subunits in the amniotic fluid compartment compared to those in maternal serum. , 1988, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[22]  J. Fiddes,et al.  Evolution of the genes for the β subunits of human chorionic gonadotropin and luteinizing hormone , 1984, Nature.

[23]  R. Shownkeen,et al.  Studies of human pituitary LH containing internally cleaved β subunit , 1991 .

[24]  M. Taylor,et al.  Urinary gonadotrophin peptide--isolation and purification, and its immunohistochemical distribution in normal and neoplastic tissues. , 1988, British Journal of Cancer.

[25]  W. Garraway,et al.  High prevalence of benign prostatic hypertrophy in the community , 1991, The Lancet.

[26]  U. Stenman,et al.  Serum levels of human chorionic gonadotropin in nonpregnant women and men are modulated by gonadotropin-releasing hormone and sex steroids. , 1987, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[27]  B. Nisula,et al.  Renal Metabolism of the β-Subunit of Human Choriogonadotropin in the Rat , 1986 .

[28]  S. Goto,et al.  Radioimmunoassay of the serum free beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin in trophoblastic disease. , 1987, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[29]  T. Chard,et al.  Expression of beta human chorionic gonadotrophin by non-trophoblastic non-endocrine 'normal' and malignant epithelial cells. , 1990, British Journal of Cancer.

[30]  J. Vaitukaitis.  Immunologic and physical characterization of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) secreted by tumors. , 1973, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[31]  D. Blithe,et al.  Disparity between β-Core Levels in Pregnancy Urine and Serum: Implications for the Origin of Urinary β-Core , 1990 .

[32]  G. Braunstein,et al.  Beta-core fragment is a major form of immunoreactive urinary chorionic gonadotropin in human pregnancy. , 1988, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[33]  L. Cole,et al.  Urinary gonadotropin fragment, a new tumor marker. I. Assay development and cancer specificity. , 1990, Gynecologic oncology.

[34]  E. Rutanen,et al.  The hCG‐beta subunit radioimmunoassay in nontrophoblastic gynecologic tumors , 1978 .

[35]  R. Canfield,et al.  Preparation and Characterization of Antibodies to the Urinary Fragment of the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin β-Subunit* , 1988 .

[36]  W. Odell,et al.  Pulsatile secretion of human chorionic gonadotropin in normal adults. , 1987, The New England journal of medicine.

[37]  R. Canfield,et al.  Characterization and relative orientation of epitopes for monoclonal antibodies and antisera to human chorionic gonadotropin. , 1985, American journal of reproductive immunology and microbiology : AJRIM.

[38]  K. W. Mckerns.  Structure and Function of the Gonadotropins , 2012, Biochemical Endocrinology.

[39]  J. Harrington,et al.  Heterogeneity of proteins in commercial preparations of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) demonstrated by Western blotting. , 1988, American journal of reproductive immunology and microbiology : AJRIM.

[40]  L. Wide,et al.  hCG and hCG subunits as tumour markers in patients with endocrine pancreatic tumours and carcinoids. , 1981, Acta endocrinologica.

[41]  G. Braunstein,et al.  Ectopic production of human chorionic gonadotrophin by neoplasms. , 1973, Annals of internal medicine.

[42]  U. Stenman,et al.  Choriogonadotropin and its beta subunit separated by hydrophobic-interaction chromatography and quantified in serum during pregnancy by time-resolved immunofluorometric assays. , 1988, Clinical chemistry.

[43]  H. Imura,et al.  Ectopic production of human chorionic gonadotropin in malignant tumors , 1978, Cancer.

[44]  L. Cole,et al.  Urinary gonadotropin fragments (UGF) in cancers of the female reproductive system. I. Sensitivity and specificity, comparison with other markers. , 1988, Gynecologic oncology.

[45]  R. Helger,et al.  Eine Methode zur direkten Bestimmung des Creatinins in Serum und Harn ohne Enteiweißung nach einer modifizierten Jaffé-Methode , 1974 .

[46]  L. Cole,et al.  Structure of the human chorionic gonadotropin beta-subunit fragment from pregnancy urine. , 1988, Endocrinology.

[47]  U. Stenman,et al.  Serum Luteinizing Hormone Concentrations Increase 100-Fold in Females From 7 Years of Age to Adulthood, as Measured by Time-Resolved Immunofluorometric Assay , 1989 .

[48]  S. Birken.  Chemistry of human choriogonadotropin. , 1984, Annales d'endocrinologie.