Skip to main content

Prolactin

 

Prolactin, also known as lactotropin, is a protein best known for its role in enabling mammals (and birds), usually females, to produce milk. It is influential in over 300 separate processes in various vertebrates, including humans. Prolactin is secreted from the pituitary gland in response to eating, mating, estrogen treatment, ovulation and nursing. It is secreted heavily in pulses in between these events. Prolactin plays an essential role in metabolism, regulation of the immune system and pancreatic development.

Discovered in non-human animals around 1930 by Oscar Riddle and confirmed in humans in 1970 by Henry Friesen, prolactin is a peptide hormone, encoded by the PRL gene.

In mammals, prolactin is associated with milk production; in fish it is thought to be related to the control of water and salt balance. Prolactin also acts in a cytokine-like manner and as an important regulator of the immune system. It has important cell cycle-related functions as a growth-, differentiating- and anti-apoptotic factor. As a growth factor, binding to cytokine-like receptors, it influences hematopoiesis and angiogenesis and is involved in the regulation of blood clotting through several pathways. The hormone acts in endocrine, autocrine, and paracrine manners through the prolactin receptor and numerous cytokine receptors.

Pituitary prolactin secretion is regulated by endocrine neurons in the hypothalamus. The most important of these are the neurosecretory tuberoinfundibulum (TIDA) neurons of the arcuate nucleus that secrete dopamine (a.k.a. Prolactin Inhibitory Hormone) to act on the D2 receptors of lactotrophs, causing inhibition of prolactin secretion. Thyrotropin-releasing factor (thyrotropin-releasing hormone) has a stimulatory effect on prolactin release, although prolactin is the only adenohypophyseal hormone whose principal control is inhibitory.

Several variants and forms are known per species. Many fish have variants prolactin A and prolactin B. Most vertebrates, including humans, also have the closely related somatolactin. In humans, three smaller (4, 16, and 22 kDa) and several larger (so-called big and big-big) variants exist.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Sulforaphane

Related Articles Houghton C. A. (2019). Sulforaphane: Its "Coming of Age" as a Clinically Relevant Nutraceutical in the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2019, 2716870. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2716870 Santín-Márquez, R., Alarcón-Aguilar, A., López-Diazguerrero, N. E., Chondrogianni, N., & Königsberg, M. (2019). Sulforaphane - role in aging and neurodegeneration. GeroScience, 41(5), 655–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-019-00061-7 Mahn, A.; Castillo, A. Potential of Sulforaphane as a Natural Immune System Enhancer: A Review. Molecules 2021, 26, 752. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26030752 Liang J, Jahraus B, Balta E, Ziegler JD, Hübner K, Blank N, Niesler B, Wabnitz GH and Samstag Y (2018) Sulforaphane Inhibits Inflammatory Responses of Primary Human T-Cells by Increasing ROS and Depleting Glutathione. Front. Immunol. 9:2584. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02584 Zimme...
Read more

Gluten-free diet

  Since gluten and starch from wheat flour would become sticky with certain amount of water, it is as same as kneading flour for making bread, its viscous of ingested foods is very depending on amount of fluid. 90% of fluid would be absorbed during digestion, it makes stool harden as well. And during digenstion process, amount of fluid is vary because of secretion of digestive juices and absorption/reabsorption of fluid. Since, the viscous of ingested gluten containing foods are very sensitive with amount of fluid, after absorption/reabsorption in small intestine, and because of the viscous of digesting foods containing gluten become higher. The higher viscous digesting foods and gluten sensitivity could make damages to intestine. Those repeated damages, inflamation and also body reaction because of the damages could cause the coeliac disease. The intestine environment of people who keep ingesting gluten, would be worse. Because of gluten itself is fine-particle and th...
Read more

Insulin-like growth factor 1

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) , also called somatomedin C, is a hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin which plays an important role in childhood growth, and has anabolic effects in adults. IGF-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IGF1 gene. IGF-1 consists of 70 amino acids in a single chain with three intramolecular disulfide bridges. IGF-1 has a molecular weight of 7,649 Daltons. In dogs, an ancient mutation in IGF1 is the primary cause of the toy phenotype. IGF-1 is produced primarily by the liver. Production is stimulated by growth hormone (GH). Most of IGF-1 is bound to one of 6 binding proteins (IGF-BP). IGFBP-1 is regulated by insulin. IGF-1 is produced throughout life; the highest rates of IGF-1 production occur during the pubertal growth spurt. The lowest levels occur in infancy and old age. A synthetic analog of IGF-1, mecasermin, is used in children for the treatment of growth failure.
Read more

Hamstring

In human anatomy, a hamstring (/ˈhæmstrɪŋ/) is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus , semitendinosus and biceps femoris ). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupeds, the hamstring is the single large tendon found behind the knee or comparable area.
Read more

Oxytocin

reference 1: Oxytocin in the tumor microenvironment is associated with lower inflammation and longer survival in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer patients Michaela G. Cuneo, Angela Szeto, Andrew Schrepf, Ellen M. Kinner, Benjamin I. Schachner, Raisa Ahmed, Premal H. Thaker, Michael Goodheart, David Bender, Steve W. Cole, Philip M. McCabe, Anil K. Sood, Susan K. Lutgendorf, Armando J. Mendez Psychoneuroendocrinology. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2020 Aug 1.Published in final edited form as: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019 Aug; 106: 244–251. Published online 2019 Apr 6. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.04.007 PMCID: PMC6716948 2: Two Birds with One Stone: Possible Dual-Role of Oxytocin in the Treatment of Diabetes and Osteoporosis Seham Elabd, Ismail Sabry Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2015; 6: 121. Published online 2015 Aug 10. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2015.00121 PMCID: PMC4530313 3: Oxytocin is an age-specific circulating hormone that is necessary for muscle maintenanc...
Read more

Zen

Zen (Chinese: 禪; pinyin: Chán; Japanese: 禅, romanized: zen; Korean: 선, romanized: Seon; Vietnamese: Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (Chánzong 禪宗), and later developed into various sub-schools and branches. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thiền, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, and east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen. The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (chán), an abbreviation of 禪那 (chánnà), which is a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyāna ("meditation"). Zen emphasizes rigorous self-restraint, meditation-practice, insight into the nature of mind (見性, Ch. jiànxìng, Jp. kensho, "perceiving the true nature") and nature of things (without arrogance or egotism), and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. As such, it de-em...
Read more