Objective To explore the relationship between glial growth factor (GGF), nerve growth factor (NGF) and growth characteristics of prolactinoma (PRL) and to evaluate pre and postoperative growth of PRL. Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze expression of GGF and NGF in 86 cases of PRL and to analyze the relationship between expression of GGF, NGF and PRL level, invasion, stroke, microvessel density. Cells were cultured with GGF and NGF to observe cell growth, cell cycle and angiogenesis. The relationship between proliferation, growth rate and GGF, NGF was evaluated by rank correlation and Chi-square test. Results GGF expression was significantly higher in invasive, stroke and recurrent pituitary adenomas ( P ＜ 0.05 ).Microvessel density increased significantly ( P ＜ 0.01 ). NGF expression was significantly lower in invasive, apoplexy and recurrent adenomas ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). Microvessel density decreased dramatically with NGF interruption ( P ＜ 0.05 ). GGF showed a positive correlation with growth rate of PRL. NGF showed a negative correlation with invasion and stroke. Conclusions GGF is one of the factors facilitating growth and invasion of PRL while NGF can partly restrain proliferation of PRL cells. Expression of GGF and NGF indirectly reflects proliferation activity of PRL and can be used as markers to evaluate invasion, recurrence, treatment response and prognosis of PRL.