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Growth Hormone and Prolactin Expression in the Immune System
Author(s) -
KOOIJMAN RON,
GERLO SARAH,
COPPENS ASTRID,
HOOGHEPETERS ELISABETH L.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb05418.x
Subject(s) - prolactin , autocrine signalling , hormone , immune system , paracrine signalling , medicine , endocrinology , biology , lactation , secretion , pituitary gland , immunology , receptor , pregnancy , genetics
A bstract : Prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) are pituitary hormones that play pivotal roles in lactation and body growth, respectively. In addition, both hormones have been implicated as modulators of immune responses. Since the expression of GH and PRL by leukocytes points to auto‐crine or paracrine roles during immune responses, our study is aimed at PRL‐and GH‐production in leukocytes. We show that human peripheral blood granulocytes, which express GH and PRL mRNA, contain high molecular‐weight immunoreactive variants of GH and PRL (37 and 43 kDa, respectively), but not the pituitary‐sized hormones. Secretion of these variants, or biologically active material as assessed by the Nb2 bioassay, was not detected. On the other hand, certain leukemic myeloid cells secrete 23‐kDa, pituitary‐sized, PRL, which is biologically active.