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. 1992 Aug 15;89(16):7713–7716. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.16.7713

Prolactin synthesized and secreted by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells: an autocrine growth factor for lymphoproliferation.

P Sabharwal 1, R Glaser 1, W Lafuse 1, S Varma 1, Q Liu 1, S Arkins 1, R Kooijman 1, L Kutz 1, K W Kelley 1, W B Malarkey 1
PMCID: PMC49781  PMID: 1502189

Abstract

Prolactin has been shown to have an immunoregulatory role in the rodent immune response. A prolactin-like molecule has also been found in mouse splenocytes and a human B-lymphoblastoid cell line. We have evaluated whether human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) synthesize and/or secrete prolactin. We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to generate a 276-base-pair prolactin product from human PBMCs, and Southern blot analysis confirmed that it was related to prolactin. Western blotting using a polyclonal antibody to prolactin indicated that cell extracts prepared from human PBMCs contained a high molecular mass (60-kDa) immunoreactive prolactin. To determine whether this PBMC prolactin was being secreted, we developed a highly sensitive and specific hormonal enzyme-linked immunoplaque assay. With this assay, we were able to detect human prolactin secretion from concanavalin A (Con A)- or phytohemagglutinin-stimulated PBMCs but not from unstimulated PBMCs. We next sought to determine whether this secreted prolactin could function as an autocrine growth factor in lymphoproliferation. We observed that anti-human prolactin antiserum significantly inhibited human PBMC proliferation in response to Con A or phytohemagglutinin. We conclude that a prolactin-like molecule is synthesized and secreted by human PBMCs and that it functions in an autocrine manner as a growth factor for lymphoproliferation.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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