Prolactin, growth hormone and human placental lactogen

Primary structure and evolution of rat growth hormone gene.

“…Growth hormone (GH) is a member of a set of structurally related peptide hormones that includes prolactin (Prl) and placental lactogen (PL; chorionic somatomammotropin) (1,2). Analysis ofthe primary structures ofthe proteins and ofcDNAs to each of their mRNAs suggests that these hormone genes evolved from a common precursor (3)(4)(5)(6).…”

Hormones

“…GH and prolactin contain 191 and 198 amino acids, respectively [51]. Both hormones have been extracted from human and animal pituitary glands, but only growth hormone has become a valuable therapeutic agent.…”

“…A placental gonadotropin, human chorionic gonadotropin (choriotropin, hCG), is extracted from urine of pregnant women in large quantities for therapy of infertility; it is a glycoprotein that is similar to FSH and LH [57]. Other placental proteins (human placental lactogen and a TSH-like glycoprotein) have not found therapeutic applications [51]. Numerous oligopeptides occur in placental tissue, but are apparently not secreted during pregnancy.…”

Peptide Hormones

“…Within the space available, some contributions to the discussion have also been included when they raised points which seemed to the editor of general interest and were not fully covered in the original presentations. The peptide hormones circulate in the blood at concentrations measured in picograms (10)(11)(12) g) or nanograms (10-9 g) per ml and, because of their similarity to the major structural and enzymatic proteins of the body, were particularly difficult to study before the introduction of modern methods for non-denaturing separation and highly sensitive measurement and analysis. Once these became available, knowledge advanced so fast that the field has tended to become specialised and fragmented.…”