Serum levels and peritoneal loss of prolactin in CAPD patients.

We studied the serum levels and peritoneal transport of prolactin in 13 CAPD patients and compared with 8 patients on hemodialysis and 10 normal subjects matched by age (30-78 years), sex, body mass index and serum glucose concentrations. CAPD and hemodialysis patients were matched also by hematocrit, serum creatinine, albumin concentrations and duration and dialysis (0-79 months), the prolactin levels in serum and in effluent were measured by RIA and NB2 bioassay. CAPD patients had higher serum prolactin levels than did hemodialysis-treated patients and control subjects. The bioactive/immunoactive ratio of serum prolactin in CAPD patients was 0.7 +/- 0.1 versus 0.9 +/- 0.1 in the control subjects (P less than 0.05) and 0.8 +/- 0.04 in the hemodialysis patients, mean +/- SEM. A significant linear correlation was demonstrated between serum levels and 8 hr peritoneal mass transfer of this hormone. A notable drop of prolactin took place after the first hour of dialysis. Serum prolactin was not influenced by peritoneal protein loss, glucose absorption rate or duration of CAPD. From this study we may conclude that hyperprolactinemia associated with CAPD is not affected by continuous peritoneal loss of prolactin, demonstrating only a slight decrease in bioactivity.