Does prolactin releasing peptide receptor regulate prolactin-secretion in human pituitary adenomas?

Prolactin-releasing peptide (PrRP) and its receptor (PrRP-R) have recently been characterized and cloned. PrRP functions as a prolactin-secreting factor through binding with PrRP-R, which is extensively expressed in the human pituitary. We studied the expression of PrRP-R in human pituitary adenomas. Pituitary adenomas were collected from 13 patients by transsphenoidal resection. Six patients had prolactin-secreting adenomas, three had adrenocorticotropic hormone-secreting adenomas, one had a growth hormone -secreting adenoma, and three had non-secreting adenomas. All pituitary adenomas examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis expressed PrRP-R. When semiquantitative competitive PCR was performed to determine the relative amounts of the PrRP-R mRNA expression level, there was no correlation between plasma prolactin levels and PrRP-R expression levels. These results suggest that the plasma prolactin level is regulated by means other than signal transduction through PrRP-R activation.