Chorionic gonadotropin is a glycoprotein with a molecular

weight of 36,000 to 40,000 Da. It has the highest carbohydrate

content of any human hormone—30 percent. The carbohydrate
component, and especially the terminal sialic acid,
protects the molecule from catabolism. The 36-hour plasma
half-life of intact hCG is much longer than the 2 hours for
LH. The hCG molecule is composed of two dissimilar subunits
termed α and β subunits. These are noncovalently linked
and are held together by electrostatic and hydrophobic forces.
Isolated subunits are unable to bind the LH-hCG receptor and
thus lack biological activity.
This hormone is structurally related to three other glycoprotein
hormones—LH, FSH, and TSH. All four glycoproteins
share a common α-subunit. The β-subunits, although sharing
certain similarities, are characterized by distinctly different
amino-acid sequences. Recombination of an α- and a β-subunit
of the four glycoprotein hormones gives a molecule with biological
activity characteristic of the hormone from which the
β-subunit was derived.