Ultrastructural morphology of nontumorous lactotrophs in human pituitaries exposed to high prolactin levels

Author(s):  
S. Jalalah ◽  
K. Kovacs ◽  
E. Horvath

Lactotrophs, as many other endocrine cells, change their morphology in response to factors influencing their secretory activity. Secretion of prolactin (PRL) from lactotrophs, like that of other anterior pituitary hormones, is under the control of the hypothalamus. Unlike most anterior pituitary hormones, PRL has no apparent target gland which could modulate the endocrine activity of lactotrophs. It is generally agreed that PRL regulates its own release from lactotrophs via the short loop negative feedback mechanism exerted at the level of the hypothalamus or the pituitary. Accordingly, ultrastructural morphology of lactotrophs is not constant; it is changing in response to high PRL levels showing signs of suppressed hormone synthesis and secretion.By transmission electron microscopy and morphometry, we have studied the morphology of lactotrophs in nontumorous (NT) portions of 7 human pituitaries containing PRL-secreting adenoma; these lactotrophs were exposed to abnormally high PRL levels.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junpei Yamashita ◽  
Yuji Nishiike ◽  
Thomas Fleming ◽  
Daichi Kayo ◽  
Kataaki Okubo

AbstractThe preoptic area (POA) is one of the most evolutionarily conserved regions of the vertebrate brain and contains subsets of neuropeptide-expressing neurons. Here we found in the teleost medaka that two neuropeptides belonging to the secretin family, pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (Pacap) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (Vip), exhibit opposite patterns of sexually dimorphic expression in the same population of POA neurons that project to the anterior pituitary: Pacap is male-biased, whereas Vip is female-biased. Estrogen secreted by the ovary in adulthood was found to attenuate Pacap expression and, conversely, stimulate Vip expression in the female POA, thereby establishing and maintaining their opposite sexual dimorphism. Pituitary organ culture experiments demonstrated that both Pacap and Vip can markedly alter the expression of various anterior pituitary hormones. Collectively, these findings show that males and females use alternative preoptic neuropeptides to regulate anterior pituitary hormones as a result of their different estrogen milieu.


Hormones ◽  
1997 ◽  
pp. 133-168
Author(s):  
Anthony W. Norman ◽  
Gerald Litwack

1993 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Kjær

Secretion of the anterior pituitary hormones adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), β-endorphin and prolactin (PRL) is complex and involves a variety of factors. This review focuses on the involvement of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) in neuroendocrine regulation of these anterior pituitary hormones with special reference to receptor involvement, mode of action and origin of AVP. Arginine-vasopressin may act via at least two types of receptors: V1− and V2−receptors, where the pituitary V1−receptor is designated V1b. The mode of action of AVP may be mediating, i.e. anterior pituitary hormone secretion is transmitted via release of AVP, or the mode of action may be permissive, i.e. the presence of AVP at a low and constant level is required for anterior pituitary hormones to be stimulated. Under in vivo conditions, the AVP-induced release of ACTH and β-endorphin is mainly mediated via activation of hypothalamic V1− receptors, which subsequently leads to the release of corticotropin-releasing hormone. Under in vitro conditions, the AVP-stimulated release of ACTH and β-endorphin is mediated via pituitary V1b− receptors. The mode of action of AVP in the ACTH and β-endorphin response to stress and to histamine, which is involved in stress-induced secretion of anterior pituitary hormones, is mediating (utilizing V1− receptors) as well as permissive (utilizing mainly V1− but also V2−receptors). The AVP-induced release of PRL under in vivo conditions is conveyed mainly via activation of V1−receptors but V2−receptors and probably additional receptor(s) may also play a role. In stress- and histamine induced PRL secretion the role of AVP is both mediating (utilizing V1 −receptors) and permissive (utilizing both V1− and V2− receptors). Arginine-vasopressin may be a candidate for the PRL-releasing factor recently identified in the posterior pituitary gland. Arginine-vasopressin of both magno- and parvocellular origin may be involved in the regulation of anterior pituitary hormone secretion and may reach the corticotrophs and the lactotrophs via three main routes: the peripheral circulation, the long pituitary portal vessels or the short pituitary portal vessels.


1978 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. O. THORNER ◽  
SUSAN M. RYAN ◽  
J. A. H. WASS ◽  
ANN JONES ◽  
P. BOULOUX ◽  
...  

1978 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren G. Lipson ◽  
Inese Z. Beitins ◽  
Paul D. Kornblith ◽  
Janet W. Mc Arthur ◽  
Henry G. Friesen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A tissue culture study was undertaken to determine if human non-functioning pituitary tumours secrete polypeptide anterior pituitary hormones in vitro and to study the spectrum of hormone release by functioning pituitary neoplasms. Fragments from 48 human pituitary tumours (from patients - 2 with Cushing's disease, 1 with Nelson's syndrome, 5 with amenorrhoea-galactorrhoea, 10 with acromegaly and 30 with non-functioning pituitary tumours) and three normal human anterior pituitary glands (controls) were placed in tissue culture immediately after surgery. The in vitro release of human growth hormone (HGH), prolactin (Prl), thyrotrophin (TSH), adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured by radioimmunoassays at the end of one week in culture. Clinical and pathological data were compared to hormone release patterns. In the culture media from control pituitaries the concentrations of the six hormones tested were 100 to 10 000 times greater than in peripheral blood. The medium surrounding the fragments from functioning pituitary tumours contained the following: a) Acromegaly - high levels of HGH and variable concentrations of the other hormones. b) Cushing's disease - ACTH and Prl predominantly. c) Amenorrhcea-galactorrhoea syndrome - prolactin in 4 out of 5 patients, all six polypeptides in one patient. In the media from the 30 patients diagnosed as having non-functioning pituitary tumours, 60 % of the samples contained at least one hormone at a concentration similar to that of the controls and 100 % of the samples contained detectable quantities of at least one hormone.


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