SYNERGISM BETWEEN PITUITARY FOLLICLE STIMULATING HORMONE (FSH) AND HUMAN CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN (HCG)1

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Abstract
IT HAS been known for years that the gonadotropic action in female rats of pituitary follicle stimulating hormone is augmented by simultaneous administration of interstitial cell stimulating substances, such as pituitary ICSH (LH, Fevold et al., 1931) or human chorionic gonadotropin (Evans et al., 1931). As FSH was more completely purified the same synergic reaction continued to be demonstrable. Some question arose, however, as to the degree of limitation of FSH effects in the complete absence of ICSH. It has become widely accepted that FSH alone cannot produce large follicles capable of producing enough estrogen to bring animals into estrus. As regards the phenomenon of synergism in the male it was reported (Evans et al., 1934, 1937; Greep et al., 1936) that the two types of hormone acted synergically also in the male. When FSH was purified sufficiently to meet the chemists’ standards for physico-chemical purity: electrophoresis, diffusion and ultra-centrifugation (Li, Simpson, and Evans, 1949; Li, 1949) a reinvestigation of the biological properties of FSH was undertaken.