Abstract
The molecular heterogeneity of serum prolactin was studied in 15 female chronic renal failure patients before induction of hemodialysis and 65 female hemodialysis patients. Serum prolactin increased concomitantly with the increment in serum creatinine level before the induction of hemodialysis, while it tended to decrease after hemodialysis. Despite the hyperprolactinemia, only a few patients had galactorrhea.
Larger molecular variants (117-140Kd), three mercaptoethanol (β-ME) resistant forms (53, 64 and 78Kd) and middle molecular variants (23.5-28Kd) were present in female chronic renal failure patients. Large amounts of β-ME resistant forms were demonstrated in these patients. The patients who complained of galactorrhea had the 25.5Kd form in the non-reducing condition, which is a peptide variant. This distribution of serum prolactin molecular heterogeneity did not charge significantly despite the improvement of hyperprolactinemia after the induction of hemodialysis.
These results indicate that most female chronic renal failure patients do not have galactorrhea despite hyperprolactinemia because of large amounts of β-ME resistant forms and scant amounts of the 25.5Kd form.
