Renal clearance of hCG accounts for 30 percent of its metabolic

clearance. The remainder is likely cleared by metabolism

in the liver (Wehmann, 1980). Clearances of β- and α-subunits
are approximately 10-fold and 30-fold, respectively, greater
than that of intact hCG.
Biological Functions of hCG
Both hCG subunits are required for binding to the LH-hCG
receptor in the corpus luteum and the fetal testis. LH-hCG
receptors are present in various other tissues, but their role
there is less defined. The best-known biological function
of hCG is the so-called rescue and maintenance of corpus
luteum function—that is, continued progesterone production.
Bradbury and colleagues (1950) found that the
progesterone-producing life span of a corpus luteum of menstruation
could be prolonged perhaps for 2 weeks by hCG
administration. This is only an incomplete explanation for
the physiological function of hCG in pregnancy. For example,
maximum plasma hCG concentrations are attained well
after hCG-stimulated corpus luteum secretion of progesterone
has ceased. Specifically, progesterone luteal synthesis
begins to decline at about 6 weeks despite continued and
increasing hCG production.
A second hCG role is stimulation of fetal testicular testosterone
secretion, which is maximum approximately when hCG
levels peak. Thus, at a critical time in male sexual differentiation,
hCG enters fetal plasma from the syncytiotrophoblast. In
the fetus, it acts as an LH surrogate to stimulate Leydig cell