[An electrophoretic analysis of human glycoprotein hormones and their subunits]

Stability of heterodimers of human glycoprotein hormones with gonadotropic and thyrotropic activities in sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) under non-reducing conditions at low temperature permits to resolve the native molecules of these hormones in SDS-PAG and to distinguish from their dissociated subunits by electrophoretical mobility. The analysis of dimers and alpha-, beta-subunits in one polyacrylamide gel allows to detect certain human glycoprotein hormones and to study some of their physico-chemical properties. Using two polyclonal antisera against human LH and FSH by the Western blot immunoassay it was shown that heterodimers as well as alpha and beta subunits after SDS-PAGE retain antigenic activity of native hormones. The method gave possibility to characterize the specificity of the given sera to different glycoprotein hormones.