Thyrotropic activity of basic isoelectric forms of human chorionic gonadotropin extracted from hydatidiform mole tissues.

hCG is known to have thyroid-stimulating activity and may cause hyperthyroidism in patients with trophoblastic diseases. hCG occurs in normal and molar pregnancy with breaks or nicks in the alpha- or beta-subunit peptide linkage and with substantial heterogeneity in the composition and degree of branching within the oligosaccharide side-chains. The bioactivity of hCG is markedly influenced by these structural variations. We purified hCG from five hydatidiform moles, using chromatofocusing separation after gel filtration. The hCG molecules were fractionated according to their isoelectric points, with a linear pH gradient from 3.2-6.1 and a final 1.0 mol/L NaCl step elution. The hCG immunoreactivity of each fraction was measured by RIA, and the thyroid-stimulating activity of hCG was determined by means of the cAMP response in Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing functional human TSH receptors (Chinese hamster ovary-JP09 cells). The chromatofocusing profile showed that hCG from the moles was eluted in six or seven major peaks at pH 6.1, 5.5, 5.3, 4.8, 3.8, and 3.2 and with 1.0 mol/L NaCl, whereas hCG extracted from serum of hydatidiform moles and standard hCG preparation CR-127 extracted from pregnancy urine showed only small peaks at pH greater than 5.3. Each fraction increased cAMP production significantly in Chinese hamster ovary-JP09 cells. The relative bioactivity/immunoreactivity, represented as the ratio of cAMP/hCG (picomoles per IU), was significantly higher in basic components (pI 6.1, 6.2 +/- 1.2; pI 5.5, 4.4 +/- 2.7; pI 5.3, 5.8 +/- 0.3) than in hCG CR-127 (bioactivity/immunoreactivity, 0.42; P < 0.05). The difference in pI of each hCG isoform was attributable to the extent of sialylation; basic hCG isoforms contained less sialic acid by immunological detection using lectins. These results indicate that isoforms of hCG with more thyrotropic activity were produced by trophoblastic tissues in patients with hydatidiform mole. We speculate that these isoforms of hCG may be responsible for the hyperthyroidism in some patients with hydatidiform moles.