Background: Mammary tumors represent the most common neoplastic disease in female dogs. Recently, the promoting role of prolactin (PRL) in the development of human breast carcinoma has been shown. Possible proliferative, anti-apoptotic, migratory and angiogenic effects of PRL on human mammary cancer cells in vitro and in vivo were suggested. The effects of PRL are mediated by its receptor, and alterations in receptor expression are likely to play a role in tumor development. Currently, not much data is available about prolactin receptor (PRLR) expression in canine mammary tumors. To set the basis for investigations on the role of PRL in mammary tumorigenesis in this species, prolactin receptor expression was evaluated by semi-quantitative real time PCR and immunohistochemistry on 10 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples each of canine non-neoplastic mammary tissue, mammary adenomas and adenocarcinomas.
Results: The highest PRLR expression levels were found in normal mammary tissue, while adenomas, and to an even higher degree adenocarcinomas, showed a significant decrease in prolactin receptor expression. Compared to normal tissue, PRLR mRNA was reduced 2.4 fold (p = 0.0261) in adenomas and 4.8 fold (p = 0.008) in adenocarcinomas. PRLR mRNA expression was significantly lower in malignant than in benign lesions (p = 0.0165). Immunohistochemistry demonstrated PRLR expression in all three tissue types with signals mostly limited to epithelial cells.
Conclusions: Malignant transformation of mammary tissue was associated with a decline in prolactin receptor expression. Further studies are warranted to address the functional significance of this finding.