Serum Levels of Prolactin, Growth Hormone, and Cortisol in Burn Patients: Correlations with Severity of Burn, Serum Cytokine Levels, and Fatality

Abstract

In this study, we measured serum prolactin (PRL), cortisol, growth hormone, interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in patients admitted with small-to-moderate burn injuries. Serum samples were obtained at the time of admission from 49 adult male burn patients with ages ranging from 18 to 91 years and TBSA ranging from 0.001 to 60%. The levels of serum PRL, IL-8, IL-6, and IL-1beta correlated positively with the TBSA, whereas only serum IL-8 levels correlated positively with fatality. Each of these factors were increased at least 2-fold at the higher burn severity. Not surprisingly, there was a large degree of variability in the hormone and cytokine levels in this patient population, which presumably reflects individual levels of stress, as well as other physiological variables. We also studied relationships between serum hormone levels and serum cytokine levels in this context. Linear regression analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the serum PRL level and the levels of IL-10, IL-6, and IL-8. These results indicate that PRL responds to burn injury at early time points and that a subset of cytokines are involved in the early response to burn injury.

Prolactin receptor in regulation of neuronal excitability and channels

“…[67][68][69][70][71] Strong evidence links these channels to mediating sensory neuronal activities by modulating the neuronal threshold of activation and efficiency of neurotransmission between sensory and spinal cord neurons. [72][73][74][75] A variety of pain conditions such as those associated with surgical procedures, 9,76 migraine, 11,34 burn, 30 rheumatoid arthritis, 26,27 and osteoarthritis 33 trigger an increase in serum PRL levels in men, and even more so in women. Recent evidence also suggests that inflammation, tissue injury and trauma lead to a sex-dependent up-regulation in extra-pituitary PRL in the vicinity of peripheral and central terminals of sensory neurons.…”

“…29 The second pathological condition associated with elevated levels of PRL is physiological and physical stress (i.e., trauma). Burn, 30 surgical procedures, 31,32 associated with increased PRL serum levels. Although estrogen is important in the regulation of PRL, PRL could be considered as a dually regulated hormone, where both estrogen and a specific pathological condition, especially stress and inflammation, also control the levels of PRL in blood.…”

The Evaluation of the Adrenal and Thyroid Axes and Glucose Metabolism after Burn Injury in Children

“…Although some studies in adults report that the cortisol level increases in the acute stage in patients with serious burns 17,18 , some others report that the cortisol level can actually fall 19,20 . However, it is suggested to avoid unnecessary steroid use and to perform the main evaluation with the ACTH stimulation test when the serum cortisol is found to be low 2,21 .…”

S179D prolactin diminishes the effects of UV light on epidermal gamma delta T cells

“…This demonstrates an important role for some form of PRL in stress-related immune modulation and provides a rationale for the elevation in PRL observed during stress (Almeida et al, 2000;Halford et al, 2003;Zelena et al, 2004). The particular stressor chosen for study by the Horseman laboratory was thermal injury to the skin (Dugan et al, 2002(Dugan et al, ,2004a and therefore involved both LC and γδT. A crucial role for γδT in the survivability of thermal injury to the skin has been described by Schwacha et al (2000).…”