Prolactin in the male: 25 years later.

In an article published 25 years ago in the first volume of the Journal of Andrology (Bartke et al, 1980), we reported evidence of involvement of prolactin (PRL) in the control of testicular growth in the golden hamster. In this seasonally breeding species, testes undergo regression in the fall and recover their size and activity the following spring. PRL-secreting transplants of anterior pituitaries augmented the stimulatory effect of treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin on the recrudescence of the regressed testes, while treatment with an inhibitor of PRL release, bromocriptine, delayed recrudescence of the testes and the seminal vesicles induced by exposure to long photoperiods.