Autocrine prolactin as a promotor of mammary tumour growth

Prolactin (PRL) plays a key role in normal growth, development and differentiation of the mammary gland. Indeed, strong evidence suggests that the development of alveolar cells requires not only oestradiol and progesterone, but also PRL. In vitro, PRL has mitogenic activity on normal mouse mammary epithelial cells (reviewed in Das & Vonderhaar, 1997). In vivo, PRL also seems to be involved in such proliferative activity, although it is more difficult to distinguish the role of PRL from the influence of the hormonal milieu (Das & Vonderhaar, 1997). This physiological role of PRL in lobular development of the mammary gland is supported by results obtained from mice deficient for PRL (Horseman et al. 1997) or for its receptor (PRLR) (Ormandy et al. 1997). Although the infertility of females homozygous for the deletion of the PRLR gene (PRLR−/−) can be partially reversed by restoring progesterone levels close to normal, their mammary gland fails to differentiate during pregnancy, leading to lactation failure (Binart et al. 2000). In addition, heterozygous mice (PRLR+/−), who have half normal receptor levels, show impaired mammary gland development and fail to lactate following their first pregnancy, clearly indicating that signals mediated by the PRL/PRLR interaction have to achieve a certain level to permit mammary gland differentiation and lactation (Kelly et al. 2002). Since the pioneering work of Topper (Topper, 1970), who observed that PRL was necessary to induce casein synthesis, our understanding of the mechanism of such induction has greatly expanded. PRL appears to be the primary hormone involved in this activity, although other hormones such as insulin and glucocorticoids are also required for lactation.