The biological assay of chicken pituitary gonadotrophins

Synopsis

The properties of gonadotrophins prepared from chicken pituitary glands have been examined by assay methods specific for follicle‐stimulating hormone and luteinising hormone and by two assays which measure the combined effects of these hormones.

Valid parallel line assays were obtained when different preparations of chicken gonadotrophins were compared with standard preparations of human and ovine gonadotrophins. The augmentation and ovarian ascorbic acid depletion assays, which use mice and rats as test animals, were less sensitive to the chicken material than the method which depends on the uptake of ³²P by the testes of 1‐d‐old chicks. It is suggested that this might reflect a species specificity in response.

Notes

Present address: Department of Physiology, National Institute for Research in Dairying, Shinfield, Reading, Berks.