Hormones continue to crop up in unexpected places. The detection of these powerful substances far from their presumed sites of origin is raising heretofore undreamed-of questions: How do catechol estrogens in the brain interact with biogenic amines, and could this interaction be implicated in the pathogenesis of disorders ranging from premenstrual tension to psychosis? What business do neurotransmitters have in the gastrointestinal tract? Is extrapancreatic insulin actually synthesized outside the pancreas (JAMA [MEDICAL NEWS] 242:1345, 1979), and if so, why?
One of the "far-flung" hormones now under study is luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH), formerly thought to originate only in the hypothalamus and to act only on the anterior pituitary where it induces the production and release of these gonadotropins: LH, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).
This year, G. S. Khodr, MD, and T. M. Siler-Khodr, MD, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Health