Follicle stimulating hormone and its receptor: future perspectives

In this report, we review our present effort in the field of molecular reproductive endocrinology: to identify a small molecular weight follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) agonistic molecule. To achieve this goal we require a number of molecular tools. We have cloned and expressed the human gonadotrophin, FSH and the human FSH receptor and developed a reliable high throughput assay. We have also proposed a model to explain FSH receptor activation and from that model, begun to create small molecules predicted to induce FSH signal transduction without binding to the extracellular domain of the membrane protein. In this report, we summarize our efforts to date and discuss our future research efforts in this area.