Differential sensitivity of specific neuronal populations of the rat hypothalamus to prolactin action

Prolactin stimulates dopamine release from neuroendocrine dopaminergic (NEDA) neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) to maintain low levels of serum prolactin. Elevated prolactin levels during pregnancy and lactation may mediate actions in other hypothalamic regions such as the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and rostral preoptic area (rPOA). We predicted that NEDA neurons would be more sensitive prolactin targets than neurons in other regions because they are required to regulate basal prolactin secretion. Moreover, differences in the accessibility of the ARC to prolactin in blood may influence the responsiveness of this population. Therefore, we compared prolactin-induced signaling in different hypothalamic neuronal populations following either systemic or intracerebroventricular (icv) prolactin administration. Phosphorylation of the signal transduction factor, STAT5 (pSTAT5), was used to identify prolactin-responsive neurons. In response to systemic prolactin, pSTAT5-labeled cells were widely observed in the ARC but absent from the rPOA and PVN. Many of these responsive cells in the ARC were identified as NEDA neurons. The lowest icv prolactin dose (10 ng) induced pSTAT5 in the ARC, but with higher doses (>500 ng) pSTAT5 was detected in numerous regions, including the rPOA and PVN. NEDA neurons were maximally labeled with nuclear pSTAT5 in response to 500 ng prolactin and appeared to be more sensitive than dopaminergic neurons in the rPOA. Subpopulations of oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus were also found to be differentially sensitive to prolactin. These data suggest that differences in the accessibility of the arcuate nucleus to prolactin, together with intrinsic differences in the NEDA neurons, may facilitate homeostatic feedback regulation of prolactin release.