Determining particular conditions or alterations in the uterine mucosa, useful e.g. for assessing receptivity for implantation, by measuring concentration of specific forms of human chorionogonadotrophin

摘要

Method for determining particular conditions or alterations in the uterine mucosa, or in the epithelium of other organs, by specific measurement of the concentration of human endometrial chorionogonadotrophin (ebeta hCG/ehCG) and/or non-trophoblastic hCG (hCG type I; beta 6, beta 7) in a body fluid sample, tissue sample and/or cells. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) similar method that comprises determining the concentration of total hCG, or its beta -subunit, in a sample of menstrual blood; (2) antibodies (Ab1) that recognize specifically ebeta hCG/ehCG and non-trophoblastic hCG; (3) antibodies (Ab2) that recognize specifically trophoblastic hCG (type II/tbeta hCG) but not ebeta hCG/ehCG; (4) test kit for the new method that contains Ab1 or Ab2, also other antibodies and standards; (5) the endometrial beta -subunit of hCG having a 165 amino acid sequence (10), defined in the specification; (6) the beta e6 gene sequence, encoding ebeta hCG of (5), having a 861 bp sequence (7), defined in the specification; and (7) four new ebeta hCG peptides of sequences (1), (3), (12) and (14). Thr-Cys-Asp-Asp-Pro-Arg-Phe-Gln-Ala-(Ser) 4-Lys-Ala (1); Ser-Arg-Glu-Met-Leu-Arg-Pro-Arg-Cys-Arg-Pro-Ile-Asn-Ala-Thr (3); Cys-Asp-Asp-Pro-Arg-Phe-Gln-Ala-Ser-Ser (12); Ser-Arg-Glu-Met-Leu-Arg-Pro-Arg-Cys-Arg-Pro (14).