Ruminants express a prolactin receptor of Mr 33 000—36 000 in the mammary gland throughout pregnancy and lactation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Developmental variation in the expression of the prolactin receptor in the ruminant mammary gland was investigated. Affinity chromatography revealed that bovine prolactin and human GH each bound to the same mammary gland proteins, yielding fractions enriched in binding activity and a protein of Mr 36 000, assumed to be a bovine prolactin receptor. Affinity cross-linking of 125I-labelled human GH to mammary microsomes confirmed that the Mr 36 000 protein was a bovine prolactin receptor. Binding assays of receptors in microsomes from the mammary tissue of cows and ewes at various stages of the lactational/reproductive cycle indicated developmental regulation of receptor concentration, but not receptor type, as no other bovine prolactin receptor type was detected by affinity cross-linking. These results suggest that differences in the response to prolactin in the mammary gland at various developmental stages in ruminants are not due to the expression of different forms of the prolactin receptor, and the lack of a prolactin effect on established lactation in ruminants is not due to the absence of the Mr 36 000 form of the prolactin receptor. Journal of Endocrinology (1993) 139, 37–49