Chorionic gonadotropin excretion

The menotropins, human menopausal gonadotropin (HMG) and urofollitropin are prepared from the urine of postmenopausal women. HMG has approximately equal amounts of FSH an LH. Urofollitropin has only FSH activity. Follitropin alpha and follitropin beta are two FSH products which are made with recombinant DNA technology. Lutropin alpha is recombinant human LH. Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is produced in the placenta and excreted in the urine. It has mainly LH activity. Choriogonadotropin alpha is the world s first recombinant chorionic gonadotropin (r-hCG) for the treatment of anovulation, the most common cause of infertility in women. 

Human chorionic gonadotropin is a hormone produced by the human placenta and excreted into the urine, whence it can be extracted and purified. Human chorionic gonadotropin is a glycoprotein consisting of a 92-amino-acid alpha chain virtually identical to that of FSH, LH, and TSH and a beta chain of 145 amino acids that resembles that of LH except for the presence of a carboxyl terminal sequence of 30 amino acids not present in LH. 

Human chorionic gonadotropin is well absorbed after intramuscular administration and has a biologic half-life of 8 hours, compared with 30 minutes for LH. The difference may lie in the high sialic acid content of hCG compared with that of LH. It is apparently modified in the body prior to urinary excretion, because the half-life measured by immunoassay far exceeds that measured by bioassay. 

Chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) may be involved since it has recently been shown (Table 18) that its administration for therapeutic purposes to newborn male infants with undescended testicles produces a selective increase in the excretion of DHA with no apparent effect upon the excretion of other steroids. It is possible that the DHA is produced by stimulation of the testes. A total of 7 babies was studied, but stimulation was obained only in the 4 whose results are given in Table 18. 

Urinary Steroid Excretion in 4 Newborn Infants, Averaged for Postnatal Days 1-3 with No Treatment, and for Days 4, 5, and 6, during Which Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Was Administered"... 

Hyperemeais gravidarum, chorionic gonadotropin level in, X, 169 urinary excretion of estrogens during, X, 170... 

Salmon and Hamblen (1943) studied the recovery in the urine of chorionic gonadotropin injected intravenously into rabbits. Excretion was terminated after 96 hours, the total amount excreted reaching 5.7%. The bulk was excreted within 24 hours. 

The urinary excretion of injected chorionic gonadotropin ranges, on an average, between 5-10%, In rare cases more has been observed. The values found by different authors are given in Table IV. 

A considerable delay of resorption and urinary excretion of chorionic gonadotropin has been obtained with chorionic gonadotropin tannate. The bulk of excretion (5%) was observed on the following days after administration ... 

Chorionic gonadotropin injected into pregnant rabbits is selectively stored in their placentae, but is not excreted into the urine or the amniotic or allantoic fluids. Human placenta stores and adsorbs chorionic gonadotropin. 

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