The Molecular Basis of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) Action in the Pituitary Gonadotrope1

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Abstract
GnRH is a hormone whose time has come. In the less than 15 years since the structure of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was announced, thousands of analogs have been prepared, and we have learned a great deal about the molecular basis of action of this hormone; this information has been employed to identify ways that GnRH can be used to benefit humanity. GnRH can be used to promote or inhibit fertility in men and women, and to treat steroid-dependent neoplasia, precocious puberty, cryptorchidism, and other diseases. In addition, GnRH has proven to be useful in veterinary medicine and for synchronized breeding of fish for food. The target sites for GnRH are limited; this has resulted in the production of highly specific agents with minimal side effects. The large number of agonist and antagonist analogs have provided an impressive arsenal for clinical work and greatly increased the capacity to design experiments; they are in large part responsible for the rapid progress in this area. In spring of 1985, the first GnRH analog was cleared for human use in the United States. In (winter) 1986, the Endocrine Society journal, Endocrine Reviews, took the unprecedented step of devoting an entire issue to a single topic-GnRH (Conn, 1986). A recent article (Ziporyn, 1985) in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted, "There''s almost no subspecialty of medicine that will be left untouched by the advances associated with ... [GnRH] ... or its analogs." GnRH is a hormone whose time has come !