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Glycoprotein Hormones Were Always Composed of Subunits—We Just Had to Find Out the Hard Way

Hormone Research Institute San Francisco, California

Abstract

The glycoprotein hormones of the pituitary gland (LH, FSH, and TSH) each consist of two chemically dissimilar, dissociable, glycosylated protein subunits. One of the subunits () is common and identical in primary structure in all three hormones; the other (β) determines the hormone specificity of the fully active -β complex. The chorionic gonadotropins (human CG, equine CG) have a similar chemistry. Over the last 20 yr this basic description has appeared so many times in papers on glycoprotein hormones that the source references are no longer cited, i.e. it is now dogma. This, of course, is very aggravating to those of my generation that played a role in developing the above concepts. Since it may seem odd to our younger colleagues that the subunit nature of the glycoprotein hormones was not forever evident, and since few of us read scientific papers that are older than 5 yr other than our own masterpieces, I would like to briefly cover in this "Remembrance" those key studies that led in a matter of a few years to a radically new understanding of the structure-function relationships among the glycoprotein hormones.

Footnotes

"Remembrance" articles discuss people and events as remembered by the author. The opinion(s) expressed are solely those of the writer and do not reflect the view of the Journal or The Endocrine Society.

Received March 18, 1991.