Pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone therapy is associated with earlier spermatogenesis compared to combined gonadotropin therapy in patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism

作     者：Jiang-Feng Mao Zhao-Xiang Liu Min Nie Xi Wang Hong-Li Xu Bing-Kun Huang Jun-Jie Zheng Le Min Ursula Brigitte Kaiser Xue-Yan Wu 

作者机构：Department of Endocrinology Peking Union Medical College Hospital Key Laboratory of Endocrinology Ministry of Health Beijing 100730 China Internal Department Division of Endocrinology Diabetes and Hypertension Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston MA 02115 USA. 

出 版 物：《Asian Journal of Andrology》 (亚洲男性学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2017年第19卷第6期

页      面：680-685页

核心收录：

学科分类：090603[农学-临床兽医学] 0907[农学-林学] 090705[农学-野生动植物保护与利用] 09[农学] 0906[农学-兽医学] 

基　　金：National Institute of Child Health and Human Development  NICHD  (R01HD019938) 

主　　题：combined gonadotropin therapy congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism pulsatile GnRH therapy spermatogenesis 

摘      要：Both pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone （GnRH） infusion and combined gonadotropin therapy （human chorionic gonadotropin and human menopausal gonadotropin [HCG/HMG]） are effective to induce spermatogenesis in male patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism （CH H）. However, evidence is lacking as to which treatment strategy is better. This retrospective cohort study included 202 patients with CHH： twenty had received pulsatile GnRH and 182 had received HCG/HMG. Patients had received therapy for at least 12 months. The total follow-up time was 15.6 ± 5.0 months （range： 12-27 months） for the GnRH group and 28.7 ± 13.0 months （range： 12-66 months） for the HCG/HMG group. The median time to first sperm appearance was 6 months （95% confidence interval [CI]： 1.6-10.4） in the GnRH group versus 18 months （95% Ch 16.4-20.0） in the HCG/HMG group （P〈 0.001）. The median time to achieve sperm concentrations 〉5 x 106 m1-1 was 14 months （95% Ch 5.8-22.2） in the GnRH group versus 27 months （95% Ch 18.9-35.1） in the HCG/HMG group （P 〈 0.001）, and the median time to concentrations 〉10 x 106 m1-1 was 18 months （95% Ch 10.0-26.0） in the GnRH group versus 39 months （95% CI unknown） in the HCG/HMG group. Compared to the GnRH group, the HCG/HMG group required longer treatment periods to achieve testicular sizes of 〉4 ml, 〉8 ml, 〉12 ml, and 〉16 ml. Sperm motility （a ＋ b ＋ c percentage） evaluated in semen samples with concentrations 〉1 × 106 ml-1 was 43.7% ± 20.4% （16 samples） in the GnRH group versus 43.2% ± 18.1% （153 samples） in the HCG/HMG group （P= 0.921）. Notably, during follow-up, the GnRH group had lower serum testosterone levels than the HCG/HMG group （8.3 ±4.6 vs 16.2 ± 8.2 nmol 1-1, P 〈 0.001）. Our study found that pulsatile GnRH therapy was associated with earlier spermatogenesis and larger testicular size compared to combined gonadotropin therapy. Additional prospective randomized studies would be required to confirm these findings.