Human Reproduction Unit, Hospital de Cruces, País Vasco University, Baracaldo, Vizcaya, Spain
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Abstract |
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Key words: BSE/new variant CJD/TSE/urinary gonadotrophins
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Introduction |
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It has been recently found that a prion protein isoform is present in urine of animals and humans affected with TSEs (Shaked et al., 2001). Most important, this prion protein was also found in the urine of hamsters inoculated with prions long before the appearance of clinical signs. However, this urinary prion protein failed to cause prion disease in hamsters when inoculated intracerebrally (Shaked et al., 2001
).
Although infectivity by urine prions in humans or animals has not yet been documented, the aforementioned report raises serious concerns regarding the future use of urinary gonadotrophins. This is especially remarkable, since compared with recombinant FSH, urinary gonadotrophins have no evident clinical benefits (Daya and Gunby, 1999; Matorras et al., 2000
), whereas cost-effectiveness studies did not reveal considerable advantages (Balasch and Barri, 2001
). Indeed with the recent commercialization of recombinant LH, the LH administration recommended by some authors in any IVF treatment (Levy et al., 2000
) can be obtained without using urinary gonadotrophins.
Thus, in our opinion, the use of urinary gonadotrophins should be discouraged.
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Notes |
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References |
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Belay, E.D. (1999) Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in humans. Ann. Rev. Microbiol., 53, 283314.[ISI][Medline]
Daya, S. and Gunby, J. (1999) Recombinant versus urinary follicle stimulating hormone for ovarian stimulation in assisted reproduction. Hum. Reprod., 14, 22072215.
Glatzel, M. and Aguzzi, A. (2001) The shifting biology of prions. Brain Res. Rev., 36, 241248.[ISI][Medline]
Levy, D.P., Navarro, J.M., Schattman, G.L., Davis, O.K. and Rosenwaks, Z. (2000) The role of LH in ovarian stimulation: exogenous LH: let's design the future. Hum. Reprod., 15, 22582265.
Matorras, R., Recio, V., Corcóstegui, B. and Rodríguez-Escudero, F.J. (2000) Recombinant human FSH versus highly purified urinary FSH: a randomized study in intrauterine insemination with husbands' spermatozoa. Hum. Reprod., 15, 12311234.
Shaked, G.M., Shaked, Y., Kariv-Inbal, Z., Halimi, M., Avraham, I. and Gabizon, R. (2001) A protease-resistant prion protein isoform is present in urine of animals and humans affected with prion diseases. J. Biol. Chem., 276, 3147931482.