Immunoreactive luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone and their subunits in tissue culture media from normal and adenomatous, human pituitary fragments.

Fragments from 4 human pituitaries removed at surgery from one gonadectomized man and three women (one with Nelson's syndrome, one with Forbes Albright syndrome and one with chromophobe adenoma) were grown in tissue culture. The tissue culture medium was changed at weekly intervals, pooled and applied to a Sephadex G-100 column for gel filtration. In each eluate luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), alpha subunit and the beta subunits of LH and FSH were measured by specific radioimmunoassays. For comparison the pituitary standard LER 907 was similarly studied. LH and FSH were measurable in all studies. LH eluted over a broad area whereas FSH eluted as a much sharper peak. In all culture media and in LER 907 large quantities of alpha subunit were detected. The beta subunits of LH and FSH were not present in the LER 907 standard. LHbeta subunit was present in the culture medium of the pituitary fragments from the castrated man and from the women with Nelson's syndrome and Forbes Albright syndrome but not in that of the woman with chromophobe adenoma. FSHbeta subunit was detectable only in the latter case.