The Action of Prolactin on the Adrenocortical Function

Summary

A patient with rheumatoid arthritis, for nine years dependent on steroid treatment and clinically totally refractory to ACTH, has been treated with prolactin for four weeks. ACTH tests before and after this treatment showed that the ability of the adrenal cortex to respond to ACTH had improved, in terms of the excretion of 17-ketogenic steroids. The basal excretion of 17-ketogenic steroids before the ACTH test and the prolactin was nil. A change to a rather low, but definite endogenous excretion may possibly be explained by an increase in responsiveness to the endogenous ACTH.