Prolactin (PRL) and Its Receptor: Actions, Signal Transduction Pathways and Phenotypes Observed in PRL Receptor Knockout Mice

作者：Christine Bôle‐Feysot, Vincent Goffin, Marc Edery, Nadine Binart, Paul A. Kelly · 发表于：Endocrine Reviews · 年份：1998 · DOI：10.1210/edrv.19.3.0334 · 被引用次数：1957 · 研究领域：Cytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions、Growth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factors、Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases

PRL is an anterior pituitary hormone that, along with GH and PLs, forms a family of hormones that probably resulted from the duplication of an ancestral gene. The PRLR is also a member of a larger family, known as the cytokine class-1 receptor superfamily, which currently has more than 20 different members. PRLRs or binding sites are widely distributed throughout the body. In fact, it is difficult to find a tissue that does not express any PRLR mRNA or protein. In agreement with this wide distribution of receptors is the fact that now more than 300 separate actions of PRL have been reported in various vertebrates, including effects on water and salt balance, growth and development, endocrinology and metabolism, brain and behavior, reproduction, and immune regulation and protection. Clearly, a large proportion of these actions are directly or indirectly associated with the process of reproduction, including many behavioral effects. PRL is also becoming well known as an important regulator of immune function. A number of disease states, including the growth of different forms of cancer as well as various autoimmune diseases, appear to be related to an overproduction of PRL, which may act in an endocrine, autocrine, or paracrine manner, or via an increased sensitivity to the hormone. The first step in the mechanism of action of PRL is the binding to a cell surface receptor. The ligand binds in a two-step process in which site 1 on PRL binds to one receptor molecule, after which ...