Pregnant mare serum gonadotropin

CAS: 9002-70-4

Natural types and subunit structure

The alpha subunit is common to each protein dimer (well conserved within species, but differing between them), and a unique beta subunit, which

confers biological specificity. The alpha chains are highly conserved proteins of about 100 amino acid residues which contain ten conserved cysteines

all involved in disulfide bonds, as shown in the following schematic representation.

Diseases

Gonadotropin deficiency due to pituitary disease results in hypogonadism, which can lead to infertility. Treatment includes administered gonadotropins, which,

therefore, work as fertility medication. Such can either be produced by extraction and purification from urine or be produced by recombinant DNA.

Failure or loss of the gonads usually results in elevated levels of LH and FSH in the blood.

Pharmacologic preparations

Main article: Gonadotropin preparations

There are various preparations of gonadotropins for therapeutic use, mainly as fertility medication. For example, the so-called menotropins (also called human

menopausal gonadotropins) consist of LH and FSH extracted from human urine from menopausal women. There are also recombinant variants.