Title: Effect of Ectopic Pituitary Glands Upon Prolactin Concentration by the<i>in Situ</i>Pituitary of the Lactating Rat
Abstract: The possibility that the circulating level of prolactin influences prolactin secretion by the pituitary was investigated by implanting either 1, 4 or 8 adult rat anterior pituitaries (AP) or 10 young (7 days old) rat AP under the kidney capsule during days 12–16 of pregnancy and measuring the prolactin content of the in situ AP on days 7, 14 or 21 of lactation. All but one implanted group were castrated during lactation. The in situ AP’s of all rats were removed after a nonsuckling period of 8 hr. On each post-partum day the in situ AP of rats with implanted AP’s contained a significantlylower concentration of prolactin than did that of control intact lactating rats without AP implants. Concentrations of 15–38 % of control were obtained but without obvious relationship to number of AP’s implanted, to the presence of the ovaries or to whether the implanted AP’s came from 7-day-old rats or from cycling female rats. These data suggest that a sufficiently high level of circulating prolactin exerts an inhibitory action on prolactin secretion by the pituitary of the lactating rat and that this influence may act independently of the ovaries. (Endocrinology83: 1359, 1968)
Publication Year: 1968
Publication Date: 1968-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 21
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