CHANGES IN THE PITUITARY GLAND OF THE FERRET FOLLOWING STALK SECTION

1961 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-NP ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. HOLMES

SUMMARY 1. The pituitary stalk was divided transpalatally in a series of female ferrets. 2. The lesion was followed by infarction of a variable amount of tissue in the antero-superior region of the pars distalis, up to a maximum of 30% of its volume. Later fibrosis and incomplete regeneration of glandular tissue occurred. 3. There was no significant hypertrophy of the pars intermedia, but its cells showed an increase in cytoplasmic ribonucleic acid after division of the stalk. 4. The neural process appeared normal for several days after operation, but after the 4th day atrophied rapidly.

1981 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAIN CHATELAIN ◽  
J. P. DUPOUY

The concentration of ACTH in the pars distalis and pars intermedia of the fetal rat hypophysis from days 17–21 of pregnancy was measured with a specific radioimmunoassay and a bioassay using isolated adrenal cells from adult rats. In both lobes of the pituitary gland, a significant correlation was observed between immunoreactive and bioreactive values, expressed as pg equivalents synthetic human 1–39 ACTH per μg protein. In the pars distalis, ACTH concentrations increased steadily from days 17–20 and then remained unchanged to term. At this time they were tenfold higher than on day 17. In the neurointermediate lobe, ACTH was detected only from day 18; the concentration of ACTH increasing between days 18 and 19. At each of the stages of pregnancy examined, the concentration of ACTH in the pars distalis was greater than that in the pars intermedia. These data have demonstrated that ACTH is present in both anterior and neurointermediate lobes of the fetal rat hypophysis, that the functional differentiation of the pars distalis takes place earlier than that of the pars intermedia, and that the concentrations of corticotrophin in the pars distalis and in the pars intermedia have different patterns of development as gestation progresses.


1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Lü ◽  
K Yang ◽  
V K M Han ◽  
J R G Challis

ABSTRACT Activation of the fetal pituitary-adrenal axis is crucial for fetal organ maturation and the onset of parturition in sheep. Many factors including corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine vasopressin secreted from the hypothalamus, and growth factors produced within the pituitary may be involved in the regulation of maturation of the fetal pituitary gland. IGFs have mitogenic and differentiation-promoting capacities in a variety of organs and are synthesized as paracrine factors within developing tissues. However, there is little information concerning the synthesis, distribution, regulation and function of IGFs in the fetal pituitary gland at different times during pregnancy. Therefore, we have localized IGF-I and IGF-II mRNAs and peptides, and determined the effect of cortisol on the level of IGF-II mRNAs in the pituitary glands of developing sheep fetuses. We examined the possible effects of IGFs on corticotroph function in cultures of adenohypophysial cells from term fetuses. Seven species of IGF-II transcripts of 1·2–6·0 kb were identified by Northern blot analysis in the pituitary gland of fetuses between day 60 of gestation and term (day 145). The levels of IGF-II mRNAs did not change significantly during pregnancy, although there was a trend for the presence of higher levels of IGF-II mRNAs at day 60 of gestation. IGF-I mRNA was not detectable. By in situ hybridization, IGF-II mRNA was localized to non-endocrine cells and to cells lining the blood vessels of the pars distalis, to some presumed endocrine cells in the pars distalis and pars intermedia, and to clusters of cells in the pars nervosa. In contrast, IGF-I and IGF-II peptides were detected in the presumed endocrine cells in the pars distalis and pars intermedia but not in the pars nervosa. Incubation of adenohypophysial cells from term fetuses with IGF-I, but not IGF-II, for 48 h increased specific 125I-Tyr-ovine CRH binding. However, neither IGF-I nor IGF-II had any significant effects on the basal or CRH-stimulated immunoreactive (ir)-ACTH output, the level of POMC mRNA or the number of ir-ACTH positive cells. Infusion of cortisol to fetuses starting at day 96 of gestation for 100 h or at days 120–125 of gestation for 84 h did not affect the level of IGF-II mRNAs in the pars distalis but decreased the levels of POMC mRNA. These results are consistent with IGFs having the potential to influence fetal pituitary function, although probably on cell types other than the corticotrophs. The likely sources of IGFs may be predominantly local (IGF-II) or from extrapituitary sources (IGF-I).


1982 ◽  
Vol 223 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Roux ◽  
Andrzej Bartke ◽  
Francis Dumont ◽  
Maurice P. Dubois

1960 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. HOLMES

SUMMARY Six distinct types of cell can be distinguished in the pars distalis of the pituitary gland of the female ferret after staining by performic acid-Alcian blue followed by periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-orange G. The first of these types contains coarsely granular PAS-positive material; the second contains granules which stain with Alcian blue, with or without PAS-positive material; while the third contains finely granular or diffuse PAS-positive material. The fourth type of cell, apparently equivalent to the 'carminophil' of other species, stains deep orange due to a combination of staining with orange G and a weakly positive PAS reaction. The fifth type is the ordinary acidophil, and the sixth the chromophobe. The pars tuberalis is extensive, and may be compact or lobulated. The pars intermedia contains two types of cell, but shows no obvious secretory characteristics. The neural process consists of a central zone which resembles the stalk in structure, and a peripheral, more vascular zone which contains the bulk of the neurosecretory material. A nucleus of small nerve cells lies in the junctional region where the stalk joins the main neural process.


2001 ◽  
Vol 169 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
EH van Den Burg ◽  
RJ Arends ◽  
B Devreese ◽  
I Vandenberghe ◽  
J Van Beeumen ◽  
...  

Carp beta-endorphin is posttranslationally modified by N-terminal acetylation and C-terminal cleavage. These processes determine the biological activity of the beta-endorphins. Forms of beta-endorphin were identified in the pars intermedia and the pars distalis of the pituitary gland of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), as well as the forms released in vitro and into the blood. After separation and quantitation by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with radioimmunoassay, the beta-endorphin immunoreactive products were identified by electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry and peptide sequencing. The release of beta-endorphins by the pituitary gland was studied after stimulation with corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) in vitro. In the pars intermedia, eight N-acetylated truncated forms were identified. Full length N-acetyl beta-endorphin(1-33) coeluted with N-acetyl beta-endorphin(1-29) and these forms together amounted to over 50% of total immunoreactivity. These products were partially processed to N-acetyl betaendorphin(1-15) (30.8% of total immunoreactivity) and N-acetyl beta-endorphin(1-10) (3.1%) via two different cleavage pathways. The acetylated carp homologues of mammalian alpha- and gamma-endorphin were also found. N-acetyl beta-endorphin(1-15) and (1-29) and/or (1-33) were the major products to be released in vitro, and were the only acetylated beta-endorphins found in blood plasma, although never together. CRF stimulated the release of opioid beta-endorphin from the pars distalis. This non-acetylated beta-endorphin represents the full length peptide and is the most abundant form in plasma.


1980 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1680-1686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrey Gorbman

In the brain of the lamprey there are neurosecretory cells that manufacture and carry known hormonal materials to the neurohypophysis, which is that part of the diencephalic floor that is adjacent to the adenohypophysis. The adenohypophysis is differentiated into a pars distalis and a pars intermedia. However, unlike all other vertebrates, there is no vascular or nervous connection between the neurohypophysis and the pars distalis. If there is any regulation of the adenohypophysis by the hormones released from the endings of neurosecretory axones in the neurohypophysis, it would have to be by diffusion across the intervening connective tissue. Such regulation remains to be demonstrated.It is difficult to decide whether this relationship between neurohypophysis and pars distalis in the lamprey (and hagfish) is primitive or degenerate in its evolution. However, in three groups of more primitive fishes an intermediate condition is found in which a vascular connection exists between the neurohypophysis and a part of the adenohypophysis. This being so, we may speculate that the lamprey and other cyclostomes represent the simplest and most primitive anatomical relationship between brain and adenohypophysis, one in which the two organs are merely apposed, allowing neurosecretions to diffuse between the two. In the elasmobranchs, holocephalians, and the coelacanth, part of the pars distalis has been vascularized by portal vessels beginning in the neurohypophysis. In all other vertebrates the entire pars distalis is so vascularized.Key words: brain, pituitary gland, neurosecretion, hormones, evolution, Lampetra richardsoni, L. tridentata, Petromyzon marinus


1966 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hume Adams ◽  
Peter M. Daniel ◽  
M. L. Prichard

ABSTRACT A study was made of the changes in volume of the pituitary glands of adult female goats surviving for many weeks after pituitary stalk section. The mean volume of the whole gland was about one-third of that found in control goats of similar sex and age. Pars distalis shrank to one-fifth of the volume of the normal lobe. This shrinkage was due largely to contraction of the scar replacing the original massive infarct, but partly also to shrinkage of the surviving parenchymal cells. The infundibular process also showed a severe reduction in size. By contrast pars intermedia underwent a substantial hypertrophy.


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