Testicular anti-mullerian hormone secretion is stimulated by recombinant human FSH in patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.

Serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), a prepubertal Sertoli cell marker, declines during puberty as an early sign of testicular testosterone (T) production. When T synthesis or action is impaired, serum AMH is abnormally high in the first months after birth and at puberty but normal between these two periods. We postulated that FSH might be responsible for AMH up-regulation in the absence of androgen inhibition. To test this hypothesis, we administered recombinant human (rh) FSH to eight patients aged from 18–31 yr with untreated congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. This situation is ideal to study the effect of FSH on AMH production because it avoids interference by endogenous gonadotropins and T. The patients received daily sc injections of 150 IU rhFSH for 1 month, followed in seven of them by a combined treatment of rhFSH plus human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG; 1500 UI im, twice a week) for 2 months. Gonadotropins, T, AMH, and inhibin B were measured in plasma before treatment every 10 d during rhF...