Prolactin in headache and migraine: A systematic review of preclinical studies

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Objective: To systemically review preclinical studies investigating the implication of prolactin signaling in headache and migraine pathophysiology. Background: The features of migraine attacks, including characteristics, duration, frequency, and prevalence, are sex-dependent with variability across a lifetime, indicating the involvement of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. Prolactin is a key regulator of this axis, and a new line of evidence implicates prolactin signaling in sex-related differences in pain perception. Methods: In this systematic review, we searched PubMed and EMBASE for the terms prolactin, hyperprolactinemia, macroprolactinemia, hypoprolactinemia, migraine, headache, head pain, and trigeminal pain pathway to find preclinical studies investigating prolactin signaling in headache and migraine. Two reviewers independently screened 841 articles for population, intervention, comparison, outcome, and study design. Studies were restricted to the English language and were excluded if they had a nonexperimental methodology. Results: Of a total of 15 preclinical articles selected, 11 were both ex vivo and in vivo, 3 were ex vivo, and 1 was an in vivo study. The main findings were that prolactin receptors are distributed in the trigeminal pain pathway, and prolactin induced migraine-like behavior in rodents. Moreover, prolactin signaling has a crucial role in calcitonin gene–related peptide (CGRP) release, a key molecule in migraine pathogenesis, and prolactin gene deletion attenuated CGRP-induced migraine-like behavior. Conclusion: Preclinical data indicate a key role of prolactin and its receptors in mechanisms causing migraine. Further randomized and placebo-controlled clinical studies targeting prolactin signaling are needed to further clarify the influences of prolactin in migraine-attack initiation.

Original languageEnglish
JournalHeadache
Volume63
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)577-584
Number of pages8
ISSN0017-8748
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Headache Society.

    Research areas

  • pain, pituitary gland, prolactinoma, sex difference, trigeminal pathway

ID: 370799492