Prolactin

About: Prolactin is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22356 publications have been published within this topic receiving 609537 citations. The topic is also known as: lactotropin, & PRL,.

Acidophil stem cell adenoma of the human pituitary: Clinicopathologic analysis of 15 cases

Abstract: In material of 347 surgically removed pituitary adenomas, 15 tumors (4.3%) were diagnosed as acidophil stem cell adenomas. These are immature neoplasms, assumed to derive from the common progenitor of growth hormone and prolactin cells, and usually containing both hormones by the immunoperoxidase technique. Clinically, they are regularly associated with hyperprolactinemia. Some patients may exhibit physical stigmata of acromegaly without biochemical evidence of the disease ("fugitive acromegaly"). The entity is also characterized by (1) relatively short clinical history; (2) large (grade III--IV), locally invasive adenoma, and (3) relatively low hormonal activity. By electron microscopy, these tumors are unicellular with immature cytoplasm, exhibiting some features of adenomatous growth hormone and prolactin with immature cytoplasm, exhibiting some features of adenomatous growth hormone and prolactin cells and frequently mitochondrial abnormalities as well. They are more aggressive than the well-differentiated adenomas of the "acidophil" cell line--a fact to be considered in postoperative management.

Autocrine control of prolactin secretion by vasoactive intestinal peptide.

Abstract: The functions of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and the many other neuropeptides that are localized in the anterior pituitary gland remain unknown although VIP of hypothalamic origin is established to act as a PRL-releasing factor. Evidence is presented here that locally-produced VIP acts in an autocrine fashion to stimulate PRL release. VIP antibodies or a VIP antagonist profoundly but reversibly suppressed PRL secretion in primary cultures of rat pituitary cells or the GH3 cell line. This evidence was obtained with the use of a reverse hemolytic plaque assay for microscopic demonstration of PRL release from individual cells under conditions precluding cell-cell interaction. We suggest that most of the high rate of "spontaneous" PRL secretion attributed to lactotropes deprived of hypothalamic influence is due in fact to the stimulatory effects of VIP acting in an autocrine fashion.

Role of neuroendocrine hormones in murine T cell development. Growth hormone exerts thymopoietic effects in vivo.

Abstract: Growth hormone (GH) and other neuroendocrine mediators have been implicated previously in T cell development. We therefore examined thymic development in DW/J dwarf mice. DW/J mice lack acidophilic anterior pituitary cells and consequently are totally deficient in the production of GH, as well as other neuroendocrine hormones. DW/J dwarf mice had greatly hypoplastic thymi that continued to decrease in size as the mice aged. Characterization of the different T cell subpopulations within the thymi of dwarf mice indicated a deficiency in CD4+/CD8+ double-positive thymocytes. This deficiency of progenitor cells became more complete as the mice aged culminating in the total disappearance of this subpopulation in some dwarf mice > 3 mo of age. Analysis of the lymph nodes indicated that a population of double-positive (CD4/CD8) T cells appeared in some mice concurrent with the disappearance of double-positive cells in the thymus suggesting that these thymocytes may have migrated to the periphery. However, peripheral T cells from dwarf mice did exhibit Ag-specific responses indicating that these mice have functional T cells. Treatment of the mice with recombinant human GH, which binds both murine growth hormone receptors and murine prolactin receptors, or ovine GH, which binds murine growth hormone receptors but not murine prolactin receptors, resulted in an increase in thymic size and the reappearance of the CD4+/CD8+ double-positive cells within the thymus. Additionally, after GH treatment, the double-positive cells disappeared from the lymph nodes. The thymi of mice treated with GH failed to attain normal size but did develop a normal distribution of T cell progenitors. Thus, GH exerts significant thymopoietic effects in vivo. Neuroendocrine hormones may be important for normal T cell differentiation to occur within the murine thymus.

Prolactin modulates the naive B cell repertoire

Abstract: Prolactin is a peptide hormone produced by the anterior pituitary gland that is critical in lactation. Prolactin can also be produced by lymphocytes, and both B and T cells express prolactin receptors. These findings have suggested that prolactin has immunomodulatory functions. Studies in spontaneously autoimmune hosts have demonstrated a role for prolactin in augmenting autoreactivity. We chose to analyze prolactin effects on anti-DNA B cells in nonspontaneously autoimmune female BALB/c mice transgenic for the heavy chain of an anti-DNA antibody. Treatment with prolactin for 4 weeks induced a lupus-like phenotype with an increased number of transgene-expressing B cells, elevated serum anti-DNA antibody titers, and glomerular immunoglobulin deposits. Prolactin caused a decrease in the population of transitional B cells and an increase in mature follicular and marginal zone B cells. The DNA-reactive B cells had a follicular cell phenotype. Anti-DNA hybridomas demonstrated that prolactin alters selection of the naive B cell repertoire. The expansion and activation of anti-DNA B cells in prolactin-treated R4A-γ2b BALB/c mice was dependent on the presence of CD4+ T cells. Finally, treatment with prolactin was unable to break tolerance in R4A-γ2b transgenic C57Bl/6 mice, suggesting that responsiveness of the immune system to prolactin is genetically determined.