The study was carried on female adult albino rats. The rats were subjected to stress and the plasma prolactin level was estimated after 5, 30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes from the onset of stress. The effects of three types of stress studied namely . ether, cold and immobilisation stress.
The results showed that the three types of stress resulted in an increase in--air iaonase in the plasma prolactin level. However,the pattern of response differed. Rats subjected to immobilization and cold stress showed a rise of plasma prolactin which started after 5 minutes, reached its peak after 30 minutes, then decline set in.
However, after 3 hours of the maintained stress, the plasma prolactin level was still significantly higher than the control value.
In rats subjected to ether anaesthesia, a progressive increase in plasma prolactin was noticed. The plasma prolactin level at the end of the three hours of the stress reaches nearly 3 times the control value