Anti-Müllerian hormone is not cytotoxic to human endometrial cancer in tissue culture.

Abstract

To determine whether anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is the factor responsible for the cytotoxic effect of testicular preparations towards endometrial cancer, homogenates and incubation media of bovine fetal testes were fractionated by lectin affinity chromatography on wheat germ agglutinin and their cytotoxic effect tested on an endometrial cancer cell line, HEC-1, and on a control cell line of renal origin. Homogenate-derived testicular proteins proved more cytotoxic than incubation medium-derived ones, and the cytotoxic factor did not bind to the lectin of wheat germ, in contrast to AMH which did. Bioactive AMH purified by monoclonal antibody chromatography, at a concentration, determined by RIA, more than 20 times that present in the cytotoxic testicular preparations, had no effect upon the growth of the malignant endometrial cells. These results indicate that the testicular agent cytotoxic to malignant endometrial cells is a substance other than AMH.