Transduction of prolactin's (PRL) growth signal through both long and short forms of the PRL receptor.

The genes for the long form of the human and the short form of the mouse PRL receptors were transfected independently into NIH 3T3 cells. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction indicated that the transfectant designated LFH contained message for only the long form and the transfectant designated SFM had message for only the short form of the receptor. Both transfectant cell lines specifically bound lactogenic hormones with high affinity and responded to PRL in culture with a 2- to 3-fold increase in cell number preceded by transient activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase. After a PRL-responsive casein-chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) construct was introduced into both LFH and SFM cells, CAT activity was induced by PRL only in the LFH-CAT cells. Thus, while the long form of the receptor can transduce the differentiation signal, both the long and the short forms of the receptor can signal the cells to grow.