The sweat chloride concentration and prolactin activity in cystic fibrosis.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the possible relationship between defective PRL and elevated sweat Cl in CF patients. Full thickness human skin was grafted onto the back of immunoincompetent, nude congenitally athymic mice. This study indicated: 1) that when skin from CF patients with high sweat chloride concentrations was grafted, the chloride concentration of sweat from the grafts was the same as of sweat from grafts of normal skin; and 2) that administration of anti-hPRL to the mice bearing the CF grafts did not increase the chloride concentration of the sweat as it had in normal skin grafts. 3) that CF may involve defective PRL production leading to failure of regulation of Cl channels in affected epithelia, 4) that the athymic mouse is a useful model for studying PRL activity in the pathophysiology of sweating of CF patients.