Prolactin receptor heterogeneity in bovine fetal and maternal tissues

Study of diverse PRL actions at a variety of fetal and maternal targets during pregnancy is complicated by receptor heterogeneity and multiple ligands circulating at this time. In the present studies, we have examined PRL receptors at a variety of potential targets by reverse transcription-PCR and Western analysis. Bovine tissues contain two different transcripts for the PRL receptor; the one that encodes a short form includes an additional 39 bases at a position identical to the deviation from the long form found in rodents and sheep. Western analyses of PRL receptors in microsomal fractions from various maternal and fetal tissues revealed considerable size heterogeneity. Collectively, the larger immunoreactive moieties (apparent Mr 100 kDa or greater) and the smaller species (47-55 kDa) correlated well with the relative abundance of the transcripts for the different forms of the receptor and varied considerably among tissues. N-Glycosylation was shown to be the major, but not the only, modification of both receptor forms when transiently transfected into COS-7 and END-6.2 cells. Much of the short form could be reduced to the mobility predicted from the complementary DNA by culture with tunicamycin; this was not true of the long form, suggesting modifications specific for its cytoplasmic domain. Differences in the pattern of immunoreactive species in the COS-7 and END-6.2 cells are consistent with cell-specific modifications. The ability of these receptor forms to mediate a transcriptional response to PRL and its placental relative, placental lactogen, was evaluated with a PRL response element inserted upstream from a thymidine kinase promoter/reporter gene construct transiently transfected into CHO-K1 cells. Both hormones were able to stimulate reporter gene expression through the long form, but not the short form, of the receptor. These studies will facilitate examination of tissue-specific actions of PRL and related hormones during pregnancy.