Urinary beta-luteinizing hormone and beta-follicle stimulating hormone immunoenzymometric assays for population research

• Published in: Clinical biochemistry Vol. 39; no. 11; pp. 1071 - 1079
• Main Authors: Brindle, Eleanor, Miller, Rebecca C., Shofer, Jane B., Klein, Nancy A., Soules, Michael R., O'Connor, Kathleen A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.11.2006
• Subjects: Adult; Drug Stability; Female; Follicle Stimulating Hormone, beta Subunit - blood; Follicle Stimulating Hormone, beta Subunit - urine; Humans; IEMA; Immunoenzyme Techniques - methods; Immunoenzyme Techniques - standards; Immunoenzyme Techniques - statistics & numerical data; Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit - blood; Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit - urine; Menstrual Cycle - blood; Menstrual Cycle - urine; Middle Aged; Stability; βFSH; βLH; IEMA; βLH; Stability; βFSH
• ISSN: 0009-9120; 1873-2933
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2006.08.009

We developed assays for measurement of urinary βLH and βFSH under collection and storage conditions typical of non-clinical research settings. IEMAs for free βLH and total βFSH were validated by standard methods. Stability of urinary βLH and βFSH was tested across freeze–thaws and stored long term at 4°C or − 20°C, or short term at room temperature, and with heating to dissociate the subunits. The IEMAs exhibited acceptable parallelism, specificity, recovery (averaging 100% for βLH, 97% for βFSH), imprecision (maximum within-run and between run CVs, respectively, 4.8% and 25.7% for βLH, 5.6% and 17.0% for βFSH), and minimum detectable dose (2.5 pmol/L for βLH, 6.8 pmol/L for βFSH). Urine and serum measures were highly correlated ( r = 0.95 for LH, 0.86 for FSH). There was no consistent decline with any storage type. Dissociation of subunits by heating was needed for βLH, but not βFSH. These IEMAs measure free βLH and total βFSH, overcoming inter-individual variability in, and collection and storage effects on, subunit dissociation, without the need for urine preservatives.