Barnea E R, Fares F, Shahar K
Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.
Placenta. 1989 Jan-Feb;10(1):37-43. doi: 10.1016/0143-4004(89)90004-0.
Maternal and fetal circulating prolactin (PRL) increases 10-fold compared with the non-pregnant state. We examined the effect of PRL upon placental steroidogenesis. It had a significant (P less than 0.05) time-dependent stimulatory effect upon placental explants/P4 accumulation and secretion into the medium. The maximal stimulatory effect (two-fold) in dose-dependent experiments was found to be 200 ng/ml. The effect of PRL upon oestradiol secretion was mainly inhibitory. This inhibition was most pronounced at 200 ng/ml. In conclusion, placental steroid secretion is modulated by PRL. This effect occurs mainly at concentrations seen in the placenta at term, suggestive of its physiologic role.
