Title	Chorionic Gonadotropin [electronic resource] / edited by Sheldon J. Segal
Imprint	Boston, MA : Springer US, 1980
Connect to	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1062-4
Descript	X, 508 p. online resource

This volume is devoted to the chemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and physiology of the human chorionic gonadotropin, heG. For this glycoprotein molecule the course from discovery to chemical deciphering covered about fifty years. It was in 1928 that Ascheim and Zondek reported that urine from pregnant women contains something that stimulates the ovaries of mice or rats. This provided the basis for the famous A-Z test for pregnancy and for the "rabbit test" modification introduced by Friedman. As researchers sought to find more sensitive responses to heG, they used a wide variety of species including the South African aquatic toad, Xenopus Zaevis, the terrestrial toad of South America, Bufo arinarus, and the African weaver finch, EupZeetes afra. The weaver finch feather reaction was particularly noteworthy, for it disclosed a non-gonadal response to heG/LH. In retrospect, this may have been an important evolutionary clue to the realization that the designation of the hormone as a "gonadotropin" may have been only partially descriptive of the molecule's physiological function--a concept that is gaining attention, as the papers in this 1980 volume divulge

Comparative Physiology -- Early Studies of Chorionic Gonadotropin and Antihormones -- Primary and Secondary Biologic Activities Intrinsic to the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Molecule -- Chorionic Gonadotropin in Rodents -- Patterns of Secretion and Antigenic Similarities Among Primate Chorionic Gonadotropins: Significance in Fertility Research -- Chemistry, Metabolism, and Immunology -- Chemistry and Immunochemistry of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin -- Chorionic Gonadotropins: Comparative Studies and Comments on Relationships to Other Glycoprotein Hormones -- Structures of the Asparagine Linked Sugar Chains of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin -- Production and Secretion of HCG and HCG Subunits by Trophoblastic Tissue -- Large Molecular Species of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin -- Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion of Human Chorionic Goandotropin and its Subunits in Man -- Immuno-Biological Studies with Beta-Subunit of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and its Subfragments -- Limitations and Problems of HCG-Specific Antisera -- Molecular Biology and Regulatory Genetics -- Human Chorionic Gonadotropin ? and ? Subunit mRNAs: Translatable Levels During Pregnancy and Molecular Cloning of DNA Sequences Complementary to HCG -- Human Chorionic Gonadotropin: Studies on the Mechanism of Secretion -- Synthesis, Processing, and Secretion of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Subunits by Cultured Human Cells -- Regulation of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Synthesis in Placenta, Choriocarcinoma, and Non-Placental Tumors -- The Interaction of the LH/HCG Receptor with Adenylate Cyclase in the Rat Ovary -- Testis-Determining H-Y Antigen and the Induction of the HCG Receptor -- Evolution and Oncology -- Presence of an HCG-like Substance in Non-Pregnant Humans -- Apparent Chor ionic Gonadotropin Immunoreactivity in Human Non-Placental Tissues -- Gonadotropin Produced by a Microorganism -- Immunodetection of Choriogonadotropin-like Antigen in Bacteria Isolated from Cancer Patients -- A Bacterial Factor Cross-Reacting with Anti-CG -- HCG Production by Non-Placental Tissue and Its Significance