BACKGROUND The current measure of treatment efficacy of single-dose methotrexate for ectopic pregnancy, is a fall in serum hCG of ≥15% between days 4-7 of treatment, which has a positive predictive value of 93% for treatment success. Two small studies have proposed a fall in serum hCG between days 0-4 after treatment confers similar, earlier prognostic information, with positive predictive valu...

BACKGROUND Protocols for the hormonal induction of ovulation and oviposition are essential tools for managing threatened amphibians with assisted reproduction, but responses vary greatly between species and even broad taxon groups. Consequently, it is necessary to assess effectiveness of such protocols in representative species when new taxa become targets for induction. The threatened genus Mi...

The rate-limiting step of steroidogenesis is the transport of the substrate cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane which involves a cycloheximide-sensitive newly synthesized protein. A protein believed to carry out this function was recently cloned from MA-10 mouse Leydig tumor cells and named the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR). In the present study, we ev...

Intensive FSH stimulation is a key tool of assisted reproduction technology but can cause severe complications through the development of an excessive number of small ovarian follicles. We tested the hypothesis that, in the late stages of ovulation induction, LH activity in the form of low-dose human CG (hCG) can stimulate and selectively modulate ovarian follicle function and growth, independe...

To determine whether injection of hCG or GnRH-agonist on d 5 after estrus (d 0) has a differential functional effect on an induced and the original corpus luteum (CL), two experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1, nonlactating Holstein cows were injected on d 5 with saline (n = 4; T1), a GnRHagonist (Buserelin, 8 mg i.m.; n = 4; T2), or hCG (1,000 IU, i.v., and 2,000 IU, i.m.; n = 4; T3). Induced...

A simple, safe and cost-effective treatment protocol in ovarian stimulation is of great importance in IVF practice, especially in the case of previous unsuccessful attempts. hCG has been used as a substitute of LH because of the degree of homology between the two hormones. The main aim of this prospective randomized study was to determine, for the first time, whether low dose hCG added to rFSH ...

Introduction: Considering the high incidence of preterm labor and its known complications, and that human myometrium contains receptors for human chronic gonadotropin (hCG) and that hCG can inhibit myometrial contractions on vitro, made me study treating effects of hCG on preterm labor. This clinical trial study was carried out to compare the effect of hCG, and magnesium sulfate (mgso4) on pre...

OBJECTIVE To study the value of measuring serum luteinising hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS). DESIGN Retrospective study of patients on a nationwide register of AIS. PATIENTS Sixty one cases of AIS with androgen receptor (AR) dysfunction (abnormalities of the AR gene and/or abnormal AR bind...

tested with 2 different lots of the Combo SP device (lot nos. 8080021 and 9020102). The results showed a lot-to-lot difference in the effect of hCG cf on the results for hCGpositive urine (Fig. 1). Lot 8080021 was unaffected by up to 1 10 pmol/L hCG cf. On the other hand, lot 9020102 was inhibited by in a dose-dependent manner and at an hCG cf concentration of 1 10 pmol/L produced a result that...

The gonadotrophins follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) are key hormones in the regulation of ovarian function. In the present study, the expression of LH/human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) receptor mRNAs in the human ovary was examined. Northern blot analysis was used to measure relative amounts of LH/HCG receptor mRNA, and in-situ hybridization was used to localize...