An appraisal of the mouse uterine weight assay for the bioassay of chorionic gonadotrophin in the macaque term placenta

Abstract

The results obtained in this investigation have shown that the increase in uterine weight of 21-day-old mice, injected with monkey CG, was affected significantly by the number of injections made, the interval between injections and the time of autopsy after the first injection. Failure to take account of these factors may explain why some investigators, using the increase in mouse uterine weight as the index of response, do not find CG in macaque placentae after the 10th week of pregnancy. The present investigation confirmed that extracts of term placentae from rhesus and stump-tailed monkeys contained measurable amounts of CG whose biological activity could be neutralized by an anti-hCG serum.

Immunogenic comparison for two different recombinant chimeric peptides (CP12 and CP22) containing one or two copies of three linear B cell epitopes from β-hCG subunit

“…The hCG bioneutralizing activity of the rabbit sera raised against CP12, CP22 or ␤-hCG CTP/DT was determined by measuring the ability of the antisera to inhibit the gain in uterine weight caused by hCG administration to immature mice as described by Hobson (1983). Briefly, 18-22 day old female Balb/c mice were subcutaneously injected, on each of 3 successive days, with 100 l of PBS containing 200 ng hCG plus rabbit antiserum to CP12 or CP22 (dilution 1:1, 1:10 and 1:50).…”

Gonadotrophin and progesterone concentrations in placentae of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus)

“…The gonadotrophic activity of placental extracts and the hCG standard was assayed using the increase in uterine weight of immature female mice (Hobson, 1983). The method was essentially that of Levin & Tyndale (1937) in which mice were injected subcutaneously with one third of the total dose on 3 consecutive days and killed 72 h after the first injection.…”

Epitope-Specific Anti-hCG Vaccines on a Virus Like Particle Platform

“…Although mice lack chorionic gonadptropin, when hCG is injected into immature mice it causes a rapid growth of the reproductive organs, thus providing a simple bioassay for antibody neutralization [ 13 ]. When we treated immature mice with hCG alone, or with the hormone incubated with control serum from mice immunized with unmodified PP7 VLPs ( p<0 .…”

“…The bioactivity of hCG was quantified by comparing the weights of the uterus of immature female mice after hCG treatment [ 13 ]. In each of two independent experiments, twenty-seven immature C57BL/6 females (20 days old, from Harlan Laboratories, Inc.) were randomly divided into 9 groups (three mice per group).…”