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🍼 Prolactin Regulation and Lactation Feedback

Explore how dopamine from the hypothalamus keeps prolactin low, and how suckling silences that brake to drive milk synthesis and suppress fertility.

Medical Technology & Imaging Physics3DModerate60 FPS

This simulator demonstrates the dual-control architecture of prolactin secretion: constant inhibitory dopamine tone from the hypothalamus versus episodic disinhibition triggered by suckling, and how the resulting prolactin pulses drive both mammary milk synthesis and suppression of the GnRH-driven reproductive axis.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Adjust suckling frequency and session duration to see how often the dopamine brake gets released and how large each resulting prolactin pulse becomes. Adjust baseline dopamine tone to simulate resting physiology or the effect of dopamine-active medications. Adjust lactotroph sensitivity to see how the same prolactin pulse translates into different rates of milk synthesis and different degrees of GnRH pulse suppression, then observe the simulated menstrual cycle status respond over simulated weeks.

💡 Did You Know?

Did you know that a pituitary tumor made of lactotrophs, called a prolactinoma, is one of the few tumors that can sometimes be treated primarily with a pill rather than surgery, because dopamine agonist drugs directly re-engage the same D2 receptor brake that suckling normally switches off?

⚙ Under the hood

Explore how dopamine from the hypothalamus keeps prolactin low, and how suckling silences that brake to drive milk synthesis and suppress fertility.

prolactindopaminelactationpituitaryendocrinologyhypothalamusreproductive physiologymilk synthesis

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install