Feng J C, Loh T T, Sheng H P
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PR China.
Life Sci. 1998;63(2):111-9. doi: 10.1016/s0024-3205(98)00246-x.
Prolactin receptors (PRL-R) are widely expressed on cells of the immune system. During lactation, the increase in serum PRL levels may modify the gene expression of these receptors. Specific PRL binding sites and the expressions of both PRL-R-L and PRL-R-S forms in thymus and spleen of nulliparous control, 10-day postpartum lactating, and 10-day postpartum nonlactating rats were studied. A semi-quantitative RT-PCR technique was used to detect the PRL-R gene transcript in the tissues. Our results showed that specific PRL binding sites and PRL-R-L mRNA and PRL-R-S mRNA were present in the lymphoid tissues with the PRL-R-L mRNA predominant. Lactation markedly increased specific binding sites and PRL-R-L mRNA in both spleen and thymus and only PRL-R-S in spleen. No differences between nulliparous control and postpartum nonlactating rats were observed in any of the parameters measured. The parallel increase in specific PRL binding sites and PRL-R-L mRNA suggests that lactation up-regulates PRL-R expression in lymphoid tissues and may be beneficial to the maternal immune system.
催乳素受体（PRL-R）在免疫系统细胞上广泛表达。在哺乳期，血清催乳素水平的升高可能会改变这些受体的基因表达。研究了未生育对照大鼠、产后10天哺乳大鼠和产后10天非哺乳大鼠胸腺和脾脏中特异性催乳素结合位点以及PRL-R-L和PRL-R-S两种形式的表达。采用半定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）技术检测组织中的PRL-R基因转录本。我们的结果表明，淋巴组织中存在特异性催乳素结合位点以及PRL-R-L mRNA和PRL-R-S mRNA，其中PRL-R-L mRNA占主导。哺乳期显著增加了脾脏和胸腺中的特异性结合位点以及PRL-R-L mRNA，而仅增加了脾脏中的PRL-R-S。在所测量的任何参数中，未生育对照大鼠和产后非哺乳大鼠之间均未观察到差异。特异性催乳素结合位点和PRL-R-L mRNA的平行增加表明，哺乳期上调了淋巴组织中PRL-R的表达，可能对母体免疫系统有益。
