Prolactin inPatients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Overview

Prolactin (PRL) is a polypeptide hormone with a molecular weight of 32 kDa formed by 199 aminoacids. It is produced by lactotropes, acidophil cells of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. PRL synthesisoccurs also in other parts of the brain and in some peripheral blood elements. This explains partlythe controversial and divergent conclusions of hitherto published work. PRL was included alsoamong immunomodulating factors and the hypothesis of its possible participation in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases was assumed. Different functions of PRL are known but little is knownabout the mechanism of action of this hormone, induction and action in target cells. There are manyreports on the more frequent occurrence of higher PRL levels e.g. in patients with systemic lupuserythematosus (SLE) but little is known on possible associations of hyper-PRL and the activity ofthe disease, type of treatment of SLE, duration of the disease and in particular specific organaffections. Another equally important issue is the lack of uniformity as regards sampling of PRLand assessment of its level. Very frequently the influence of external factors which may considerablymodify the PRL levels is neglected. Standardization of conditions for PRL assessment and attentionpaid to external factors during sampling could hasten research of this problem and partly unifysome hitherto published studies.

Key words:
hyperprolactinaemia, methods of saturation analysis, radioimmunoanalysis, systemic lupus erythematosus