Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Prolactin |
ProlactinNoun1. Gonadotropic hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary; in females it stimulates growth of the mammary glands and lactation after parturition. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | Pituitary lactogenic hormone. A polypeptide hormone with a molecular weight of about 23,000. It is essential in the induction of lactation in mammals at parturition and is synergistic with estrogen. The hormone also brings about the release of progesterone from lutein cells, which renders the uterine mucosa suited for the embedding of the ovum should fertilization occur. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Prolactin is a hormone secreted by the adenohypophysis (anterior pituitary gland), which is made up of 199 amino acids with a molecular weight of about 23,000 daltons. Prolactin has many effects, the most profound of which are to stimulate the mammary glands to produce milk (i.e. lactation).
Increased serum prolactin during pregnancy causes enlargement of the mammary glands of the breasts and increases the production of milk.
Sometimes, newborn babies (males as well as females) secrete a milky substance from their nipples in a phenomenon called witch's milk. This is caused by the fetus being affected by prolactin circulating in the mother just before birth. This usually resolves soon after birth.
There is a diurnal as well as a ovulatory cycle variation in prolactin levels. During pregnancy, prolactin levels rise as rising estrogen promotes prolactin release, causing further maturing of mammary glands, preparing them for lactation. After childbirth, prolactin levels fall as the internal stimulus for them is removed. Sucking by the baby on the nipple promotes further prolactin release, maintaining the ability to lactate. Usually, in the absence of galactorrhea, lactation will cease within one or two weeks of the end of demand breastfeeding. High prolactin levels also tend to suppress the ovulatory cycle by inhibiting both FSH and GnRH.
As a contraceptive, demand breastfeeding is said to be more than 90% effective in the first month of pregnancy even if no other forms of contraception are used, with decreasing effectiveness in successive months. Those are pretty good figures, though it is advised that this should not be relied on as the only contraceptive for any long period of time...
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Prolactin."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| PRF | English | Prolactin release factor | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: ProlactinSynonyms: lactogenic hormone (n), luteotropin (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Prolactin |
| Specialty definitions using "prolactin": Bromocriptine ♦ Domperidone ♦ Prolactin Release-Inhibiting Hormone, Prolactin-Releasing Hormone ♦ Receptors, Pituitary Hormone-Regulating Hormone, Receptors, Prolactin. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Measurement of serum prolactin may be indicated. (references) | |
It produces prolactin and a variety of other key hormones. (references) | ||
Other pituitary tumors secrete an excess of the hormone prolactin. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Prolactin" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Prolactin" is used about 20 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 20 | 78,262 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "prolactin": Prolactin Release-Inhibiting Hormone. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "prolactin": Prolactin-Releasing Hormone. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "prolactin"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 催乳激 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | prolactin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | prolactine, luteotroop hormoon, lactogeen hormoon. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | prolaktiini. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
French | prolactine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Prolaktin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | προλακτίνη. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | prolattina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | "롤락틴. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | olactinpray prolactina. (various references) prolactina. (various references) prolaktin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "prolactin": prolactins. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "prolactin" (pronounced prōla"ktun) |
| 5 | -a" k t u n | actin. |
| 4 | -k t u n | nekton, plankton. |
| 3 | -t u n | badminton, batten, beaten, begotten, biotin, bitten, Boston, boughten, Bouton, brighten, bulletin, Burton, button, Canton, capstan, captain, carton, certain, charlatan, chieftain, clandestine, cosmopolitan, cotton, craton, curtain, Dalton, dentin, dishearten, eaten, enlighten, exoskeleton, fatten, flatten, forgotten, fountain, frighten, frostbitten, gelatin, gluten, gotten, guncotton, handwritten, hearten, heighten, highfalutin, intermountain, intestine, jetton, kindergarten, kitten, lighten, litten, lovastatin, Manhattan, marten, Martin, Melton, metropolitan, misbegotten, mitten, molten, mountain, mutton, Newton, overwritten, Parton, Patten, phytoplankton, piston, plantain, platen, pleasing, ponton, predestine, puritan, rewritten, rotten, Samaritan, satin, Seton, Sexton, shorten, Singleton, skeleton, smitten, spartan, straighten, sultan, sweeten, tartan, teston, threaten, tighten, Titan, Triton, tungsten, typewritten, unbeaten, unbutton, uncertain, underwritten, unwritten, verboten, wanton, wheaten, whiten, written. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-i-l-n-o-p-r-t" | |
-1 letter: cilantro, contrail, platonic, tropical. | |
-2 letters: apricot, aprotic, atropin, caltrop, cantrip, capitol, caption, carotin, clarion, coalpit, optical, paction, parotic, topical. | |
-3 letters: action, alnico, aortic, aroint, atonic, atopic, cantor, caplin, captor, carlin, caroli, carton, cartop, cation, catlin, catnip, citola, citral, citron, coital, contra, cortin, craton, latino, lictor, lorica, oilcan, parton, patrol, patron, picaro, plaint, pliant. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-i-l-n-o-p-r-t" | |
+1 letter: pratincole, prolactins. | |
+2 letters: anthropical, coplanarity, inculpatory, narcoleptic, nontropical, pantropical, percolating, percolation, postcranial, pratincoles, replication. | |
+3 letters: entropically, inoperculate, lycanthropic, narcoleptics, nonpractical, organoleptic, perceptional, percolations, precentorial, proclamation, productional, projectional, prostacyclin, replications, triplication. | |
+4 letters: complimentary, convertiplane, coplanarities, inoperculates, inscriptional, intertropical, lycanthropies, microplankton, personalistic, phallocentric, philanthropic, pictorialness, plantocracies, postcranially, prevocational, proclamations, prostacyclins, provincialist, provinciality, pyrotechnical, reapplication, recompilation, reduplication, republication, triplications, tropicalizing, unproblematic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Abbreviations 11. Acronyms 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
