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¹ Department of Bioscience, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XW, UK
² Inserm U809, Faculté de Médecine René Descartes- site Necker, Université Paris Descartes, F-75015 Paris, France
³ College of Osteopathic Medicine, Edison Biotechnology Institute, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA

(Requests for offprints should be addressed to D J Flint; Email: david.flint{at}strath.ac.uk)

Direct metabolic effects of GH on adipose tissue are well established, but effects of prolactin (PRL) have been more controversial. Recent studies have demonstrated PRL receptors on adipocytes and effects of PRL on adipose tissue in vitro. The role of GH in adipocyte proliferation and differentiation is also controversial, since GH stimulates adipocyte differentiation in cell lines, whereas it stimulates proliferation but inhibits differentiation of adipocytes in primary cell culture. Using female gene disrupted (ko) mice, we showed that absence of PRL receptors (PRLRko) impaired development of both internal and s.c. adipose tissue, due to reduced numbers of adipocytes, an effect differing from that of reduced food intake, where cell volume is decreased. In contrast, GHRko mice exhibited major decreases in the number of internal adipocytes, whereas s.c. adipocyte numbers were increased, even though body weight was decreased by 40–50%. The changes in adipose tissue in PRLRko mice appeared to be entirely due to extrinsic factors since preadipocytes proliferated and differentiated in similar fashion to wild-type animals in vitro and their response to insulin and isoproterenol was similar to wild-type animals. This contrasted with GHRko mice, where s.c. adipocytes proliferated, differentiated, and responded to hormones in identical fashion to controls, whereas parametrial adipocytes exhibited markedly depressed proliferation and differentiation potential and failed to respond to insulin or noradrenaline. Our results provide in vivo evidence that both GH and PRL stimulate differentiation of adipocytes but that the effects of GH are site specific and induce intrinsic changes in the precursor population, which are retained in vitro.

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