ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1632087
EXPLORING THE ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF PROLACTIN HORMONE
Provisionally accepted
FUNDA BULUT ARIKAN*
Nevin SAGSOZ- Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Türkiye
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract Introduction: Prolactin is primarily recognized for its role in lactation, yet its antioxidant function remains incompletely elucidated. The purpose of the present study was to examine the antioxidative role of prolactin. Methods: Seventy female volunteers were equally divided into hyperprolactinemia and control groups in this case-control study. Total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), native thiol (NT), total thiol (TT), prolactin, TSH, FT3 and FT4 analyzes were performed using the serum samples with the relevant kits based on the colorimetric or spectrophotometric methods. Also, oxidative stress index (OSI), disulphide (DS) and the percent ratios of disulphide/native thiol (DS/NT), disulphide/total thiol (DS/TT), and native thiol/total thiol (NT/TT) were also determined. Results: TAS, NT, TT concentrations, and NT/TT percent ratio were found to be higher in patients than in the control group (p<0.05). OSI, and TOS concentrations, as well as DS/NT and DS/TT percent ratios were significantly lower in the hyperprolactinemia group compared to control (p< 0.001 for all). FT4 was also lower in the hyperprolactinemia group (p<0.05). Prolactin demonstrated a statistically significant positive correlation with TAS, NT, TT, and NT/TT, and a significant negative correlation with TOS, OSI, and FT4 (p<0.05). The TOS exhibits a statistically significant negative regression with prolactin, while NT has a statistically significant positive regression (p=0.002 for both). Discussion/Conclusion: Hyperprolactinemia elevated total antioxidant and thiol levels, while suppressing total oxidants, oxidative stress, and disulfide/thiol ratios. These findings indicate that prolactin plays a pivotal role in maintaining thiol–disulfide homeostasis and oxidative balance, functioning as a crucial endogenous antioxidant hormone. Moreover, the elevated prolactin levels during gestation and lactation may reflect its essential contribution to maternal– infant antioxidant defense, thereby supporting optimal fetal development.
Keywords: Prolactin, TAS, TOS, thiols, antioxidant, hormone
Received: 11 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 BULUT ARIKAN and SAGSOZ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: FUNDA BULUT ARIKAN, funbulut@kku.edu.tr
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.