Laboratory Tests for Pituitary Gonadotropins

The human pituitary gland elaborates two gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). We shall present the currently employed laboratory methods of measuring these hormones and discuss those biological and physicochemical characteristics necessary to the understanding of the assay systems used. Certain aspects of the clinical application of these assay procedures which will prove useful to the practicing physician are included as well as normal values which have been established in various laboratories (Table).

The Hormones  Human pituitary FSH and LH are two distant glycoproteins synthesized in the anterior pituitary gland and released into the blood stream upon the direction of specific releasing hormones from the hypothalamus. These releasing hormones are produced by certain nuclei in the hypothalamus and reach the anterior pituitary by way of a system of portal vessels arising in these nuclei. These hypothalamic centers are the final terminals through which the central nervous system and