ABSTRACT
Selected human urinary gonadotrophins were assayed against one another using various measures of response in the same immature female mice. Intact or hypophysectomized animals were used and in some experiments the results of hypophysectomy were checked in complete serial sections. Extracts from the urine of two subjects with Turner's syndrome were compared. In intact mice, the relative potency judged by the ovarian response differed from that shown by the uterine response and the 95 % fiducial limits of the two estimates did not overlap. When the mice were hypophysectomized, one extract became much less potent while the other did not.
Similar differences were shown in the response of intact mice to urinary extracts from two subjects with Klinefelter's syndrome. There was a marked disparity between the relative potencies shown by the uterine response and by the incidence of vaginal opening.
Similar differences were not shown between the responses to different extracts from the urine of normal postmenopausal women, but these extracts were known to differ little in quality.
The results are interpreted in terms of qualitative differences between human urinary gonadotrophins.
