Abstract
The development of immunoassays for inhibin using heterologous radioim-munoassay (RIA) (1–3) or a synthetic N-fragment of the α-subunit (4) has allowed determination of the plasma concentration of immunoreactive inhibin and its role in human reproductive physiology. Specific measurement of different isoforms (5) or precursors of inhibins (6) has been reported in recent years, but the clinical usefulness of individual assay methods and the diagnostic significance of measuring circulating inhibin still remain controversial because of inconsistency in the assays. Recently, an ir-inhibin RIA kit manufactured by Nippon DPC of Japan, became available (7). The kit measures immunoreactive inhibin, a combination of dimeric inhibins and the α-subunit monomer, and is sensitive enough to define the normal range and specific enough not to cross-react with activin. This prompted us to measure plasma ir-inhibin levels in various pituitary, adrenal, gonadal, and other diseases in an attempt to find the clinical significance of inhibins and their pathophysiological role. At the same time, the plasma level of free activin was measured using a competitive protein-binding assay with follistatin (8).
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Demura, R. et al. (1997). Plasma Inhibin and Activin in Disease. In: Aono, T., Sugino, H., Vale, W.W. (eds) Inhibin, Activin and Follistatin. Serono Symposia USA. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1874-6_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1874-6_16
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