Abstract
Establishment and maintenance of pregnancy require the activity of a highly specialized maternal tissue, the decidua. It is well established that the human decidua synthesizes and releases prolactin. However, in the rat, no study has been able to demonstrate the production of prolactin by the decidua. In this report, we established for the first time using Northern blot analysis and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot analysis, immunocytochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, that a defined cell population located in the rat antimesometrial decidua expresses prolactin mRNA, as well as synthesizes and secretes this hormone. By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends, we cloned a full-length cDNA for rat decidua prolactin, whose sequence was identical to that of pituitary prolactin. Our results also showed that pituitary prolactin appeared to down-regulate decidual prolactin levels. Under these circumstances, inhibition of pituitary prolactin secretion led to a rise in both decidual prolactin mRNA and protein expression. Moreover, addition of exogenous prolactin to primary decidual cells in culture also caused a marked decrease in decidual prolactin mRNA expression. Finally, treatment of primary decidual cells with steroid hormones or 8-bromo-cAMP revealed a differential regulation of decidual prolactin expression from that of pituitary suggesting a tissue-specific regulation of prolactin gene expression, possibly through the use of an alternative promoter in rat decidua.
Highlights
Establishment and maintenance of pregnancy require the activity of a highly specialized maternal tissue, the decidua
We established for the first time using Northern blot analysis and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot analysis, immunocytochemistry, and enzymelinked immunosorbent assay, that a defined cell population located in the rat antimesometrial decidua expresses prolactin mRNA, as well as synthesizes and secretes this hormone
Effect of Steroid Hormones on rat decidual prolactin (rdPRL) mRNA in Primary Decidual Cells—Because steroid hormones are essential for the formation and survival of the decidual tissue, we examined the role of progesterone and estradiol on rdPRL expression
Summary
(Received for publication, August 18, 1999, and in revised form, September 23, 1999). Pregnancy is accompanied by remarkable changes in the uterine environment that allow maternal/fetal adaptation to pregnancy without damage to the mother or rejection of the fetus This requires profound reorganization of the different tissues forming the uterus. Two PRL-related proteins were shown by two different groups to be expressed by the rat decidua and termed PRL-like protein B (PLP-B; Ref. 23) and decidual PRL-related protein (dPRP; Ref. 24) This prompted Croze and co-workers [25] and Roby et al [24] to suggest that these proteins could be candidate genes encoding DLt. further investigations failed to demonstrate that these PRL-related hormones bind to the PRL-R [26, 27] and their biological actions are still not clear.
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