Ectopic Production of the Isolated Beta Subunit of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

Bruce D. Weintraub; Saul W. Rosen

doi:10.1172/JCI107513

Ectopic Production of the Isolated Beta Subunit of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

Bruce D. Weintraub and Saul W. Rosen

Published December 1, 1973 - More info

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Abstract

A material similar to the beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG-β) was detected in serum (300 ng/ml) and tumor extract from a 75-yr-old man with pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma. This material was indistinguishable from hCG-β in three different types of radioimmunoassay that displayed widely varying reactions with glycoprotein trophic hormones and their subunits. In gel chromatography there appeared to be heterogeneity of the serum beta-like immunoactivity, including one component that coeluted with standard hCG-β tracer and another immunologically indistinguishable component that displayed a slightly lower elution volume. Neither complete human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) nor its alpha subunit was detected in radioimmunoassays of serum, before or after fractionation, or in tumor extract. The absence of complete hCG was confirmed in a gonadotropin bioassay sensitive to 15 ng of hCG, which showed no bioactivity in serum or tumor extract containing 450 and 90 ng of hCG-β, respectively. This case probably represents the first demonstration of isolated polypeptide subunit production of ectopic origin and suggests that hCG-β, as well as other subunits, may prove useful as cancer markers.