The localization of prolactin binding sites in human breast tissue

Abstract

An immunohistochemical method involving the application of purified human prolactin and a specific antiserum to human prolactin, followed by the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase immunoperoxidase technique, has been used to detect prolactin binding in benign and malignant human breast tissue. The use of fresh, frozen material has been found to be essential. Prolactin binding has been shown to be a consistent feature of benign breast tissue but a variation within samples has been noted which is irrespective of hyperplastic changes. Fifty six percent of breast carcinomas gave a positive reaction but heterogeneity of binding has been shown to be a significant feature. A relationship between the presence and extent of prolactin binding and good histological differentiation of the tumours has been noted. It is concluded that immunohistochemistry is a suitable method for the demonstration of prolactin binding sites in human breast tissue and can provide useful information with regard to tumour heterogeneity.

Presence and possible significance of immunohistochemically demonstrable prolactin in breast apocrine metaplasia

“…The high proportion of the breast cancer tissue staining for PRL observed in this study is in keeping with the findings of previous workers (Dhadly & Walker, 1983;Marchetti et al, 1984;Purnell et al, 1982). Also it is possible that the PRL positive breast cancer cells seen in the present study may represent cells depicting apocrine type breast carcinoma differentiation.…”

“…Our success with formalin fixed paraffin wax embedded tissue is, however, contrary to a previous report where the use of fresh frozen tissue was found essential (Dhadly & Walker, 1983). Nevertheless, Purnell et al (1982) were able to demonstrate cytoplasmic PRL binding in paraffin wax embedded tissue but using an antiserum against bovine PRL.…”

“…The highly focal nature of such a change has prevented direct biochemical examination of a possible role played by PRL. On the other hand, successful identification of PRL presence has recently been reported in breast tissue sections using an immunohistochemical approach (Dhadly & Walker 1983;Purnell et al, 1982;Marchetti et al, 1984). This study was designed to examine whether or not apocrine metaplastic change in BBD is associated with the presence of immunohistochemically detectable PRL.…”

An immunohistochemical study of the incidence and significance of human gonadotrophin and prolactin binding sites in normal and neoplastic human ovarian tissue

“…Our finding that formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue sections can be used to detect both in vivo and in vitro binding sites is in accord with the results of other immunohistochemical studies of gonadotrophin binding sites in rat testes (Childs et al, 1978;Rajaniemi et al, 1981b) and rat ovaries (Petrusz & Uhlahrik, 1973;Petrusz, 1974;Petrusz & Sar, 1978) and with studies of PRL binding sites in rat ovaries (Nolin, 1978(Nolin, , 1980Dunaif et al, 1977Dunaif et al, , 1982 in human, dog and rat prostatic tissue (Eletreby & Mahrous, 1979;Witorsch, 1978Witorsch, , 1979aWitorsch, , 1979bPurnell et al, 1982), dog breast tissue ( Eletreby & Mahrous, 1979) and mouse adrenal gland (McDonough & Ewig, 1982). Dhadley and Walker (1983) were, however, unable to detect PRL binding in paraffin-embedded sections of human breast tissue and advocated the sole usage of frozen sections: it appears therefore that the stability of binding sites for PRL varies from organ to organ. The validity of immunoperoxidase techniques for the demonstration of hormone receptor sites has been subjected to stringent criticism (Zehr et al, 1981;McCarty et al, 1981;Underwood, 1983) but we have elsewhere countered these arguments (AlTimimi et al, 1985) Kammerman (1980), Kammerman et al (1981 and Rajaniemi et al (1981).…”

“…Biochemical studies have demonstrated specific receptors for gonadotrophins and prolactin in the normal human ovary (Poindexter et al, 1979;McNeilly et al, 1980;Kammerman, 1980Kammerman, , 1981Rao et al, 1981) and in ovarian neoplasms (Davy et al, 1977;Kammerman et al, 1980Kammerman et al, , 1981Rajaniemi et al, 1981a) whilst immunoperoxidase techniques have been used to demonstrate gonadotrophin-binding sites in rat gonads (Petrusz & Uhlarik, 1973;Petrusz, 1974;Childs et al, 1978;Rajaniemi et al, 1981b) and prolactin-binding sites in human prostate gland (Witorsch, 1978) and in normal and neoplastic human breast tissue (Paterson et al, 1982;Purnell et al, 1982;Dhadley & Walker, 1983). …”