European-South Africa collaboration on the genetic basis of gonadotropin-releasing hormone deficiency in failure to progress through puberty and infertility

Abstract

Reproductive capacity, the key element for species survival, depends on a complex organ network involving the hypothalamus, pituitary, gonads, and internal and external genitalia. This system is centrally controlled by incompletely understood neuroendocrine mechanisms integrated at the hypothalamic level, whose elucidation is the research focus. Vertebrate reproduction depends entirely upon the neurosecretion of the decapeptide gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) from less than 4 000 GnRH neurons in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus.