Urinary beta-luteinizing hormone and beta-follicle stimulating hormone immunoenzymometric assays for population research.
OBJECTIVE
We developed assays for measurement of urinary betaLH and betaFSH under collection and storage conditions typical of non-clinical research settings.


METHODS
IEMAs for free betaLH and total betaFSH were validated by standard methods. Stability of urinary betaLH and betaFSH was tested across freeze-thaws and stored long term at 4 degrees C or -20 degrees C, or short term at room temperature, and with heating to dissociate the subunits.


RESULTS
The IEMAs exhibited acceptable parallelism, specificity, recovery (averaging 100% for betaLH, 97% for betaFSH), imprecision (maximum within-run and between run CVs, respectively, 4.8% and 25.7% for betaLH, 5.6% and 17.0% for betaFSH), and minimum detectable dose (2.5 pmol/L for betaLH, 6.8 pmol/L for betaFSH). Urine and serum measures were highly correlated (r=0.95 for LH, 0.86 for FSH). There was no consistent decline with any storage type. Dissociation of subunits by heating was needed for betaLH, but not betaFSH.


CONCLUSIONS
These IEMAs measure free betaLH and total betaFSH, overcoming inter-individual variability in, and collection and storage effects on, subunit dissociation, without the need for urine preservatives.
Brindle
Eleanor
E
Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Box 353412, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ebrindle@u.washington.edu <ebrindle@u.washington.edu>
Miller
Rebecca C
RC
Shofer
Jane B
JB
Klein
Nancy A
NA
Soules
Michael R
MR
O'Connor
Kathleen A
KA
D000328:Adult; D004355:Drug Stability; D005260:Female; D037201:Follicle Stimulating Hormone, beta Subunit / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D037101:Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine*; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D008875:Middle Aged
D037201:Follicle Stimulating Hormone, beta Subunit; D037101:Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit