A modified hemagglutination inhibition test for estimating human follicle-stimulating hormone (hFSH) in unprocessed...

The development of a hemagglutination inhibition test for urinary human follicle stimulating hormone (hFSHu) is described. Antisera were raised in rabbits and absorbed immunochromatographically with crude preparations of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). hFSHu was coupled to erythrocytes by means of bis-diazobenzidine. The reagents, alone or in combination were subjected to various specificity tests such as reactions of hFSHu-coated erythrocytes with antisera against different antigens, reactions of anti-hFSHu with erythrocytes coated with different antigens, and reaction of "non-FSH" preparations on different test combinations of anti-hFSHu sera and hFSHu-coated erythrocytes. A comparative assay of an hFSHu preparation with different reagent combinations appeared to give the most stringent criterion for specificity. A modified hemagglutination inhibition test system was developed according to the principle reported earlier for urinary human luteninizing hormone (hLHu). Its sensitivity was fixed at 2 mIU FSH/ml which is sufficient for the estimation of hFSH in unconcentrated urine.