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. 2021 Oct 18;22(20):11247. doi: 10.3390/ijms222011247

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© 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Prolactin and dopamine receptor in the lactotroph cell. After dopamine binding to dopamine receptor type 2, K+ channels are activated and adenylyl cyclase activity is inactivated, resulting in the suppression of PRL gene expression, lactotroph proliferation and a decrease in the size of hypertrophied lactotrophs. D2 via G0 also activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways to prevent lactotroph proliferation. The autocrine released prolactin binds to the prolactin receptor and, via the Janus kinase-2-signal transducer and activator of transcription-5 (JAK2-STAT5), (PI3K-Akt-mTOR) or the MAPK pathways, mediates changes in transcription, differentiation and proliferation.