BACKGROUND Although human placenta is a well established, rich source of proteins, hCG is the only measurement available to date in diagnosing the occurrence of the hydatidiform mole. Serum levels of a new placental protein, immunoreactive inhibin, were high in molar pregnancy, but the inhibin assay never became of clinical use, due to its low specificity and reliability. Since specific assays ...

Maternal circulating levels of inhibin A are significantly lower in patients with clinical symptoms of miscarriage. The objective of this study was to quantify relative expression of inhibin alpha, inhibin/activin betaA, betaB, betaC, follistatin, activin receptors and beta-glycan genes and content of inhibin A, activin A and follistatin protein in villous tissue of first trimester miscarriages...

Recent work indicates that serum inhibin B is a useful marker of spermatogenesis and inhibin B production sufficient to maintain detectable serum concentrations in adults depends on spermatogenic activity. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of serum inhibin B measurement to predict the success of testicular sperm extraction (TESE) in 17 men with nonobstructive az...

Inhibin, which is important for normal gonadal function, acts on the pituitary gonadotropins to suppress folliclestimulating hormone (FSH) secretion. The level and cellular localization of the inhibin isotypes, alpha, betaA and betaB, in the testis of mice were examined during postnatal development in order to determine if inhibin expression is related to testicular maturation. Mouse testes wer...

Inhibin production has been demonstrated in malignant epithelial ovarian tumours, but secretion of inhibins by benign cystadenoma has not yet been reported. The present study evaluated the concentrations of inhibin A and inhibin B and the relationship with oestradiol and nitric oxide metabolites in fluid collected from benign ovarian serous cystadenomas (n = 15). In addition, follicular fluid s...

In order to clarify the endocrinological profiles of inhibins during normal menstrual cycles in Japanese monkeys, plasma concentrations of inhibin A and inhibin B were measured by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. In addition, circulating gonadotropins and steroid hormones were measured. Blood samples were taken from four Japanese monkeys showing normal menstrual cycles. Plasma inhibin A remain...

BACKGROUND Inhibin is a tumor-suppressor and activin antagonist. Inhibin-deficient mice develop gonadal tumors and a cachexia wasting syndrome due to enhanced activin signaling. Because activins signal through SMAD2 and SMAD3 in vitro and loss of SMAD3 attenuates ovarian tumor development in inhibin-deficient females, we sought to determine the role of SMAD2 in the development of ovarian tumors...

OBJECTIVE To assess the role of inhibin B in the evaluation of male factor infertility. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Reproductive endocrinology clinic. PATIENT(S) Seventy-five patients with infertility problems (mean age 31.2 +/- 7.5 years) and 12 controls (32.1 +/- 8.8 years) with proven fertility. INTERVENTION(S) None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Semen analysis was performed accord...

Inhibin is an important modulator of reproductive function at both the endocrine level, through its regulation of pituitary FSH biosynthesis, and at the paracrine and autocrine levels, as an intragonadal regulatory factor. To investigate the in vivo actions of inhibin in FSH regulation and gonadal function, transgenic mice that overexpress the rat inhibin -subunit gene were generated. A transge...