Prolactin cell (also known as epsilon acidophil, lactotrope, lactotropic cell, lactotroph, mammatroph, mammotroph) is a cell in the anterior pituitary which produces prolactin in response to hormonal signals including dopamine, estrogen, progesterone and Thyrotropin-releasing hormone. Dopamine has an inhibitory effect on PRL (prolactin) secretion. Prolactin cell are acidophilic by H&E stains and comprise about 20% of all cells in the anterior pituitary gland.
If these cells undergo neoplastic transformation, they will give rise to a prolactinoma, a prolactin-secreting pituitary adenoma.
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“It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)