Endocrine Abstracts

Circulating levels of prolactin are subject to acute and long-term regulation by many factors including oestrogen and dopamine. We have studied the regulation of prolactin promoter activity in living pituitary cells using transgenic Fischer rats in which reporter gene expression is regulated by the human prolactin gene locus (hPRL-d2EGFP). We have previously identified pulsatile prolactin transcription patterns in living lactotroph cells in fetal tissue, that became stabilised...

Pituitary development, in particular the differentiation of anterior pituitary endocrine cells, remains to be fully understood, and may have implications for adult pituitary plasticity and hyperplasia. We have used prolactin-reporter transgenic rats to characterise prolactin transcription during the appearance of newly formed lactotroph cells during fetal development.Transgenic rats with the firefly luciferase reporter gene inserted into exon 1b of a 160...

Prolactin (PRL) is a hormone mainly produced by the lactotroph cells of the anterior pituitary gland. Besides its pivotal role in reproduction, PRL has also been found to have immuno-modulatory properties. The pituitary is the main source of circulating PRL, however it is also expressed in humans at extra-pituitary sites1. In extra-pituitary tissues, PRL mRNA contains an extra exon (exon 1a), and expression is regulated by an alternative promoter upstream of the pit...

Mammalian genes display pulsatile transcription dynamics with bursts of expression occurring with variable duration and frequency. Using the human prolactin gene as a model of tissue specific gene regulation, we have characterised the transcription dynamics of this gene in cell lines, primary cells and pituitary tissue slices. Our data indicate that the tissue environment may have an important influence on cellular transcription activity. Cultures of cells from enzymatically d...