Evaluation of Research on Control of Prolactin Secretion

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Abstract
Before the era of modern neuroendocrinology appeared on the scene about 20 years ago, when almost nothing was known about hypothalamic regulation of prolactin secretion and radioimmunoassay methods were unavailable, there already was considerable knowledge of the control of prolactin secretion, particularly in animals. Pioneer work in the laboratories of Turner, Lyons, Reece, Riddle and Bates, Foley and Cowie, in our laboratory, and others had demonstrated that estrogen was a potent stimulator of prolactin from the anterior pituitary (AP), that changes occurred in pituitary prolactin content during the estrous cycle (highest on days of proestrus and estrus), that pituitary prolactin in animals was low during most of pregnancy, but increased at parturition, that thyroidectomy or thiouracil administration reduced pituitary prolactin content, and that newborn human infants had high amounts of prolactin in the urine. All of these early observations have been corroborated recently by the more sensitive and quantitative radioimmunoassays for prolactin.