Human placental lactogen inhibits growth without changing serum levels of IGF-1 in rats: an apparent specific action of the hormone

Abstract

Previous work in our laboratory has shown that the internal environment of rats has reduced growth-promoting activity during the second half of gestation and this condition is associated with resistance to the anabolic effects of GH. The placenta appears to be responsible for this condition but injections of estradiol plus progesterone into virgin females did not mimic it. Accordingly, it seemed worthwhile to test the effects of a placental lactogen (PL) for possible growth inhibitory effects. In the present study the effects of human (h)PL on skeletal growth in young female rats and on the growth of embryonic tissue transplants under their kidney capsules were investigated. Human (h) and bovine (b) GH, and ovine prolactin (oPRL) were also tested to determine whether the results obtained with hPL were specific. Twice daily subcutaneous injections of a high dose of hPL (10mg/day), but not of oPRL (5 mg/day) for 7 days inhibited both host tail growth and tibial epiphyseal plate width, and growth of whole 10-day embryo transplants. Injections of hGH at 1 mg/day for 8 days significantly increased host skeletal growth and growth of 12-day embryonic head transplants; at the same dose, neither bGH nor oPRL affected growth of the embryonic heads or of the host tibial epiphyseal plate width, but the bGH increased host tail growth. By contrast, the 1 mg/day dose of hPL significantly reduced the host's tibial epiphyseal plate width, tail growth, and transplant growth; lower doses of hPL (10 and 100 μg/day) were also inhibitory. Although all the hormone treatments increased total serum IGF-1 levels in the females, none of them had a significant effect when compared to saline injected control animals. Thus, the growth-inhibitory effects of hPL treatment appear to be specific to that hormone and they are not mediated by depression of serum IGF-1 levels. If these effects of hPL are mimicked by one or more of the rodent PLs, then the reduced growth-promoting activity and resistance to GH action that occurs in pregnant rats could be due to the rat PLs. These results indicate that in addition to having glucose-sparing effects in the mother, PLs could promote fetal growth by inhibiting growth of maternal tissues, which would thus spare other metabolites, such as amino acids and vitamins, for the conceptus.