Nous avons souhaité, dans ce travail de Thèse, préciser le rôle de l’hormone prolactine (PRL) dans la tumorigenèse des prolactinomes. Nous avons tout d’abord décrit l’histoire naturelle et moléculaire des tumeurs lactotropes développées par le modèle de souris Prlr-/-, invalidé de façon globale pour le récepteur de la PRL (PRLR). Les femelles Prlr-/- développent des prolactinomes avec 100% de pénétrance à 12 mois. Ces tumeurs sont très sécrétantes, invasives et prolifératives. L’analyse transcriptomique comparative des hypophyses de souris Prlr+/+ et Prlr-/- nous a permis de mettre en évidence de nouvelles voies de signalisation impliquées dans la survenue de ces tumeurs. Ces nouveaux gènes candidats seront à rechercher chez l’Homme. Par ailleurs, l’étude d’un autre modèle murin développé dans le cadre de ce travail, invalidé de façon spécifique dans la cellule lactotrope, a permis de démontrer pour la première fois in vivo que la PRL exerçait un rétrocontrôle autocrine sur la sécrétion et la prolifération des cellules lactotropes. Bien que nous n’ayons pas retrouvé de mutation germinale du PRLR dans une large cohorte de patients atteints de prolactinome sporadique, nos résultats suggèrent que des mutations somatiques de ce gène ne sont pas à exclure et pourraient contribuer à la survenue de la pathologie humaine. / In this work, we investigated the role of prolactin (PRL) in prolactinoma tumorigenesis. We first described the natural and molecular history of lactotroph cell tumors developed by the Prlr-/- mouse model, globally invalidated for the PRL receptor (PRLR). The Prlr-/- females develop prolactinomas with 100% penetrance at 12 months of age. These tumors are highly secreting, invasive and proliferative. The comparative transcriptomic analysis of pituitaries from Prlr+/+ and Prlr-/- mice suggested new signaling pathways involved in lactotroph adenoma developement in this mouse model. The role of these novel candidate genes remains to be demonstated in Humans. Furthermore, by studying another mouse model developed during this work, deleted for Prlr only in lactotroph cells, we demonstrated for the first time that PRL exerts an autocrine feedback on lactotroph cell secretion and proliferation in vivo. Although we did not find any germline mutation of PRLR in a large cohort of patients with sporadic prolactinoma, our results suggest that somatic mutations of this gene cannot be excluded and may contribute to the onset of the human pathology.

Distribution of prolactin-releasing peptide-like immunoreactivity (PrRP- LI) was investigated in the rat medulla with the use of a rabbit polyclonal antiserum against the human PrRP-31 peptide. PrRP-positive neurons were noted mainly in two areas of the caudal medulla: ventrolateral reticular formation and commissural nucleus of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), corresponding to the A1 and A2 areas. PrRP-LI neurons were absent in the medulla rostral to the area postrema. Double-labeling the sections with PrRP antisera and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) monoclonal antibodies revealed extensive colocalization of PrRP- and TH-like immunoreactivity (TH-LI) in neurons of the A1 and A2 areas. Our results show that PrRP-LI is expressed in a population of A1 and A2 noradrenergic neurons of the rat caudal medulla.

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Pineal-mediated depressions in prolactin cell activity after light deprivation were studied in the male and female Golden Syrian hamster. Prolactin cell activity was determined by measuring radioimmunoassayable prolactin, newly synthesized prolactin and prolactin mRNA levels in the pituitary. Serum prolactin was also measured by radioimmunoassay. Use of the recombinant DNA plasmid, pPRL-1, which contains the rat prolactin complimentary DNA sequence, was validated in this dissertation for measuring prolactin mRNA in the hamster. Male hamsters blinded for 11, 21, or 42 days showed significant and progressively greater declines in prolactin mRNA levels which were completely prevented by pinealectomy. The decline seen after 11 days is the earliest depression in prolactin cell activity reported after light deprivation in the hamster. Female hamsters blinded for 28 days, however, showed no such decreases in prolactin cell activity if they continued to display estrous cyclicity. This supports the hypothesis that, unlike the male, there is not a gradual decline in prolactin cell activity after blinding in the female hamster and that loss of estrous cyclicity may precede or possibly accompany declines in prolactin cell activity. After 12 weeks of blinding, females were acyclic and had dramatically depressed levels of prolactin cell activity. However, pinealectomy did not completely prevent this decline due to blinding unless the females continue to display estrous cyclicity. Thus, when pinealectomy was ineffective in preventing the loss of estrous cyclicity due to blinding, it was also ineffective in preventing declines in prolactin cell activity. In ovariectomized females, blinding caused a decline in prolactin cell activity. Pinealectomy was not consistently effective in preventing this decline after 12 weeks of treatment, although, in females blinded for 4 weeks (at which time all animals were cycling) and then ovariectomized for an additional 4 weeks, pinealectomy completely prevented this decline in prolactin cell activity. In a separate study, significant changes in prolactin cell activity during the estrous cycle were seen in untreated normally cycling female hamsters. These changes in prolactin mRNA, prolactin synthesis, and radioimmunoassayable prolactin in the pituitary were measured in the morning, when, consistent with other reports, no differences in serum prolactin were observed.

To test the hypothesis that the hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neuronal system plays a role in the dynamic regulation of pituitary prolactin secretion, its activity was correlated with experimentally-induced prolactin secretory episodes in the male rat. Direct estimates of tuberoinfundibular neuronal activity were made by measuring its rates of dopamine and norepinephrine synthesis or release. Prolactin secretion was assessed in vivo by measuring radioimmunoassayable prolactin levels in peripheral blood and the pituitary and in vitro by measuring prolactin concentrations released into incubation media. The anesthetic urethane and a substance isolated from the pineal gland were both demonstrated to inhibit prolactin secretion. Significant elevations of newly synthesized tuberoinfundibular dopamine were observed concomitant with this decreased prolactin secretion suggesting that acute increases in tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neuronal activity were perhaps causally related to acute decreases in prolactin secretion since these substances were without a direct effect on the pituitary in vitro. Conversely, acute decreases in tuberoinfundibular neuronal activity induced by dopamine biosynthesis inhibition or mimicked by pituitary receptor blockade induced acute increases in prolactin secretion. As another prerequisite for its involvement in the dynamic regulation of prolactin secretion, the tuberoinfundibular neuronal system was demonstrated to be involved in the negative feedback control of prolactin over its own secretion. Elevated circulating prolactin levels produced by pituitary homografts transplanted beneath the kidney capsule accelerated tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neuronal activity. In two unrelated experimental conditions, rats rendered blind and anosmic or hyperprolactinemic, the chronic inhibition of prolactin secretion was not associated with the maintenance of an increased tuberoinfundibular neuronal activity, but rather with a supersensitivity of the anterior pituitary to the prolactin-release-inhibitory action of dopamine. Long-lasting alterations in tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neuronal activity appeared to induce this pituitary supersensitivity to dopamine. The tuberoinfundibular neuronal system appears to have the capacity to modulate prolactin secretory episodes via the alteration of its dopaminergic activity. Long-lasting alterations in this activity may induce changes in anterior pituitary sensitivity to dopamine essential for the chronic inhibition of pituitary prolactin secretion.

Orientador: Luis Antonio Justulin Junior / Resumo: A próstata é uma glândula acessória do sistema genital masculino e, além da dependência androgênica para o seu desenvolvimento e homeostasia, é influenciada por hormônios não esteróides, entre eles a prolactina (PRL). Estudos em modelos animais demonstraram que a PRL pode atuar com efeito anabólico sobre a glândula prostática. Assim, nosso objetivo foi investigar os efeitos da modulação de PRL sobre o desenvolvimento e maturação da próstata ventral (PV) de ratos. Foram utilizados ratos machos Sprague Dawley (DPN 90) divididos em 6 grupos (n=6): Grupo controle (CT): receberam solução salina; Prolactina (PRL): Prolactina (0,3mg/kg); Bromocriptiona (BR): inibidor de PRL (0,4mg/kg). Todos os animais foram submetidos diariamente (via subcutânea) do dia pós-natal 12 (DPN12) até os DPN 21 ou 35. Os animais foram anestesiados, pesados e posteriormente foram eutanasiados. O sangue e os lobos da PV foram coletados, pesados e processados para análises morfológicas, de western blot (WB) e RT qPCR. O tratamento com PRL induziu aumento de peso corpóreo dos animais no DPN35 comparado aos outros grupos. Histologicamente houve maior acumulo de screção no lúmen e diminuição do compartimento epitelial nos grupos PRL e BR comparados ao CT no DPN35. A reação imunohistoquímica para Ki67 demonstrou aumento de células proliferativas nos grupos tratados com PRL. A quantificação de PCNA confirmou estes dados, com aumento significante no grupo PRL35. A intensidade de reação imunohistoquímica para AR fo... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Mestre

A prolactina é um neurohormônio que faz parte da superfamília das citocinas e está envolvida em inúmeros processos biológicos. Devido à sua ação endócrina, autócrina e parácrina, a prolactina está muitas vezes relacionada ao desenvolvimento de patogenias humanas como carcinomas e doenças autoimunes. Considerando-se que: a) diferença de 41% encontrada na sequência de aminoácidos da prolactina de camundongo em relação à humana, b) diferenças na glicosilação, fosforilação, e ligação ao receptor e, c) o fato que os modelos animais utilizados em ensaios in vivo com prolactina humana são geralmente ratos ou camundongos (modelos heterólogos), fica evidente que esses fatores podem interferir na interpretação dos resultados. Portanto, experimentos em sistemas homólogos seriam desejáveis. Esse trabalho descreve a obtenção pela primeira vez da mPRL no espaço periplásmico bacteriano, portanto na sua forma autêntica, ou seja, sem a metionina inicial, com expressão de 0,1 ± 13,2% g/mL/A600. Para isso um vetor de expressão baseado no promotor lPL foi construído e utilizado como promotor constitutivo, com ativação a 37° C. Um processo de fermentação em biorreator, com rendimentos de expressão de até 2,5 g/mL, e um processo de purificação com três etapas: concentração e purificação por hidrofobicidade (Phenyl Sepharose CL-4B) seguida por HPLC de fase reversa e HPSEC, foram também desenvolvidos. A mPRL purificada foi caracterizada por técnicas físico-químicas e biológicas em comparação com o padrão de referência da mPRL recombinante do Instituto Nacional de Saúde (NIH, EUA). A atividade biológica foi analisada e sua potência calculada foi de 33,9 ± 1,4 UI/mg. O mesmo vetor foi utilizado para a expressão do antagonista S177DmPRL, mas o baixo nível de expressão obtido inviabilizou a sua produção no espaço periplásmico de bactérias. Como alternativa, optamos por produzir essa proteína em células CHO e clones com expressão da ordem de 1 g/mL/dia foram obtidos. Com a expressão tanto da mPRL autêntica, como do S177D-mPRL, está aberto o caminho para o desenvolvimento dos estudos que envolvam modelos animais onde a mPRL e seu antagonista sejam fatores relevantes a serem considerados. / Prolactin is a neurohormone included in cytokine superfamily and involved in innumerous biological processes. Due to its endocrine, autocrine and paracrine action, it is, frequently, related to development of human pathologies, such as carcinomas and autoimmune diseases. Considering some factors: a) the difference of 41% between the amino acid sequence of mouse prolactin in relation to the human one, b) glycosylation, phosphorylation and receptor ligation differences, and c) the fact that the animal model used for in vivo assays with human prolactin are generally rats or mice (heterologous), it is evident that these factors might interfere in the interpretation of results. Therefore, experiments with homologous systems are desirable. This work describes, for the first time, the expression of mouse prolactin in the periplasmic space of bacteria, in its authentic form, i. e., without initial metionine, showing expression levels of 0.1 ± 13.2% g/mL/A600. For this purpose, an expression vector based on PL promoter was constructed and used as a constitutive form, with activation at 37° C. A fermentation process in bioreactor, with expression yields up to 2.5 g/mL, and purification process with three steps: concentration and purification by hydrophobicity (Phenyl Sepharose CL-4B) followed by reverse phase HPLC and HPSEC, were also developed. The mPRL was purified and characterized by chemo physical and biological techniques compared to the recombinant standard reference from the National Institute of Health (NIH, USA). Its biological activity was analyzed and the calculated potency was 33.9 ± 1.4 UI/mg. The same vector was used for the expression of S177D-mPRL antagonist, but the low expression level obtained makes it impracticable to produce this protein in the periplasmic space of bacteria. As an alternative, the S177D-mPRL was produced in CHO cells and clones with expression level of about 1 g/mL/day were obtained. The expression of both proteins, the authentic mPRL and the S177D-mPRL, opens the door for developing studies with animal models if mPRL and its antagonist might be considered relevant factors.