RENAL AND EXTRARENAL DISPOSAL OF CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN IN THE IMMEDIATE POSTPARTUM PERIOD*

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Abstract
THE disposal of chorionic gonadotropin in the human being has been a matter of conjecture for some time. The method commonly employed in studies on this question has consisted of injecting a known amount of the principle into men or nonpregnant women and of determining what proportion of the administered dose appeared in the urine. Friedman and Weinstein (1) found that in men not more than 20 per cent of the injected dose was excreted by the kidneys. However, in nonpregnant women, Bradbury and Brown (2) reported an instance in which more than 50 per cent of the administered dose appeared in the urine. Allowing for slower rates of elimination both before and after the period during which urinary assays were made, they expressed the belief that most of the dose was excreted and that relatively little destruction or utilization of chorionic gonadotropin occurred in the body. These views were shared by Lloyd and associates (3) who also reported a case in which 30 per cent of the injected dose was eliminated by the kidneys. However, they listed other cases in which no chorionic gonadotropin was found in the urine after parenteral administration of 5,000 i. u. There is also much work on animals on this problem, summarized by Zondek and Sulman (4), but inasmuch as chorionic gonadotropin is a foreign substance to animals other than primates, the results obtained with rats, dogs, rabbits and other nonprimate mammals are not necessarily applicable to human beings.