Prolactin as an Autocrine/Paracrine Factor in Breast Tissue

The neuroendocrine hormone prolactin (PRL)(3) stimulates breast growth and differentiation during puberty, pregnancy, and lactation. Despite extensive and convincing data indicating that PRL significantly contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of rodent mammary carcinoma, parallel observations for human breast cancer have not been concordant. In particular, the therapeutic alteration of somatolactogenic hormone levels has not consistently altered the course of human breast cancer. Recent data, however, suggest that extra-pituitary tissues are capable of elaborating PRL; indeed, the observation of sustained serum levels of PRL in post-hypophysectomy patients supports this hypothesis. Proof of an autocrine/paracrine loop for PRL within normal and malignant human breast tissues requires that the following three criteria be met: (1) PRL must be synthesized and secreted within mammary tissues; (2) the receptor for PRL (PRLR) must be present within these tissues; and, (3) proliferative responses to autocrine/paracrine PRL must be demonstrated. These criteria have now been fulfilled in several laboratories. With the demonstration of a PRL autocrine/paracrine loop in mammary glands, the basis for the ineffective treatment of human breast cancer by prior endocrine-based anti-somatolactogenic therapies is evident. These findings provide the precedent for novel therapeutic strategies aimed at interrupting the stimulation of breast cancer growth by PRL at both endocrine and autocrine/paracrine levels.