Previous work on domesticated species has indicated that vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is an important prolactin-releasing factor in these birds, but no comparative work in passerine birds has been reported. This study showed that iv injections of VIP (50-100 microg/kg body mass) result in a dramatic, but transitory, rise in plasma prolactin in Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Signi...

Several established clonal strains of rat pituitary cells which produce growth hormone in culture have been shown to secrete a second protein hormone, prolactin . Prolactin was measured immunologically in culture medium and within cells by complement fixation . Rates of prolactin production varied from 6 .6 to 12 μg/mg cell protein per 24 hr in four different cell strains . In these cultures ra...

Leptin, like estrogen, is one of the endo/paracrine factors, which are synthesized in and secreted from mature adipocytes. The roles of the mammary fat pad and mammary adipocytes in the initiation of lactation are not clear. In this study, we showed that combination of prolactin, leptin and estrogen elevated the expression of the milk protein beta-lactoglobulin. We also showed that after prolac...

The association between central serotonergic responsivity (measured by prolactin response to acute administration of fenfluramine hydrochloride) and aggressivity was examined in 40 adult male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Prolactin response to fenfluramine was distributed bimodally with 24 monkeys displaying a "low" prolactin response and 15 showing a "high" prolactin response to th...

Postpartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a disease of unknown etiology and exposes women to high risk of mortality after delivery. Here, we show that female mice with a cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of stat3 develop PPCM. In these mice, cardiac cathepsin D (CD) expression and activity is enhanced and associated with the generation of a cleaved antiangiogenic and proapoptotic 16 kDa form of the nur...

Panic attacks may result from severe reduction of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in a person of low DHEA with normal or increased levels of cortisol. That is, an excessive ratio of cortisol to DHEA occurs which extinguishes the effects of unstable DHEA and magnifies the effects of cortisol. Prolactin increases during panic attacks and is correlated with attack severity. That is, prolactin increa...

A female hemodialysis patient with galactorrhea due to hyperprolactinemia was treated with different dialysis modalities to assess the effect on prolactin levels. A single session of both high-flux hemodialysis and hemodiafiltration resulted in decreased prolactin levels (16,6% and 77,2%, resp.). However, baseline prolactin levels measured immediately before the next dialysis session did not ch...

Investigations over two decades have revised understanding of the prolactin hormone. Long thought to be merely a lactogenic hormone, its list of functions has been extended to include: reproduction, islet differentiation, adipocyte control and immune modulation. Prolactin functions by binding cell-surface expressed prolactin receptor, initiating signaling cascades, primarily utilizing Janus kin...

Effects of domperidone, a dopaminergic antagonist, on serum prolactin levels were studied in 6 normal men and 6 normal cyclic women at the different phases of their menstrual cycles (i.e., the follicular, the preovulatory and the luteal phases). Domperidone (10 mg, i.v.) caused significant increases in serum prolactin in all cases within 15 min after the injection. The prolactin response was si...

The secretion of prolactin in cultured pituitary cells was studied in correlation with the cellular changes induced by stimulatory or inhibitory agents . The techniques used in this study were : radioimmunoassay, immunocytochemistry, scanning (SEM) as well as transmission (TEM) electron microscopy . Prolactin secretion was stimulated by 17,8-estradiol (10 nM) as well as thyrotropin-releasing ho...