DISTRIBUTION OF ADRENOCORTICOTROPHIC HORMONE IN THE PITUITARY GLAND

1957 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 471-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Rochefort ◽  
M. Saffran

The highly vascular, anteromedial zone of hog and beef pituitary glands, which is rich in basophilic cells, contains a concentration of ACTH from 4 to 13 times that found in the rest of the adenohypophysis. The concentration of ACTH can be correlated (r = 0.96) with the relative proportion of basophilic cells, supporting the view that the pituitary basophiles are the source of ACTH. The distribution of both basophiles and ACTH in the rat adenohypophysis is more uniform than in hog or beef glands. The posterior lobe of all species examined (rat, hog, beef, and man) contains small, but significant, amounts of ACTH.

1957 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 471-480
Author(s):  
G. J. Rochefort ◽  
M. Saffran

The highly vascular, anteromedial zone of hog and beef pituitary glands, which is rich in basophilic cells, contains a concentration of ACTH from 4 to 13 times that found in the rest of the adenohypophysis. The concentration of ACTH can be correlated (r = 0.96) with the relative proportion of basophilic cells, supporting the view that the pituitary basophiles are the source of ACTH. The distribution of both basophiles and ACTH in the rat adenohypophysis is more uniform than in hog or beef glands. The posterior lobe of all species examined (rat, hog, beef, and man) contains small, but significant, amounts of ACTH.


1968 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Dean ◽  
D B Hope

1. An improved procedure for the isolation of neurosecretory granules from the posterior lobe of the bovine pituitary gland is described. 2. Of the total oxytocic and pressor activities present in the original tissue 80% was sedimentable. 3. The granules were separated from mitochondria by prolonged centrifugation in a sucrose density gradient. During a sedimentation period of 5hr. the granules moved progressively into denser regions of the gradient and the mitochondria remained at the top. 4. The biological activities of the granules were measured: the oxytocic activity was 11·56±1·63 and the pressor activity was 15·60±3·91 units/mg. of protein. 5. A protein was isolated from a lysate of granules prepared from 40 pituitary glands. Amino acid analysis showed that it consisted of a mixture of neurophysin-I and neurophysin-II in equal proportions. It accounted for 60% of the soluble granule protein and for 50% of the total granule protein. 6. The neurophysins present in the granules are associated with 19·1 units of oxytocic and 21·1 units of pressor activity/mg. of protein. 7. Starch-gel electrophoresis revealed the presence of both neurophysins in extracts of 15 pituitary glands studied individually. 8. We conclude that the polypeptide hormones, oxytocin and [8-arginine]-vasopressin, are normally closely associated with the two neurophysins within neurosecretory granules of the pituitary gland.


1963 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Grinberg

ABSTRACT Radiologically thyroidectomized female Swiss mice were injected intraperitoneally with 131I-labeled thyroxine (T4*), and were studied at time intervals of 30 minutes and 4, 28, 48 and 72 hours after injection, 10 mice for each time interval. The organs of the central nervous system and the pituitary glands were chromatographed, and likewise serum from the same animal. The chromatographic studies revealed a compound with the same mobility as 131I-labeled triiodothyronine in the organs of the CNS and in the pituitary gland, but this compound was not present in the serum. In most of the chromatographic studies, the peaks for I, T4 and T3 coincided with those for the standards. In several instances, however, such an exact coincidence was lacking. A tentative explanation for the presence of T3* in the pituitary gland following the injection of T4* is a deiodinating system in the pituitary gland or else the capacity of the pituitary gland to concentrate T3* formed in other organs. The presence of T3* is apparently a characteristic of most of the CNS (brain, midbrain, medulla and spinal cord); but in the case of the optic nerve, the compound is not present under the conditions of this study.


1965 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Apostolakis

ABSTRACT A method for the extraction of prolactin from human pituitary glands is described. It is based on acetone drying, distilled water extraction, acetone and isoelectric precipitation. Two main products are obtained: Fraction R8 with a mean prolactin activity of 12.2 IU/mg and fraction U8 with a mean prolactin activity of 8.6 IU/mg. The former fraction does not contain any significant gonadotrophin activity and the latter contains on an average 50 HMG U/mg. In both cases contamination with ACTH and MSH is minimal. The growth hormone activity of both these fractions is low. It is postulated that in man too, prolactin and growth hormone are two distinct hormones. A total of 1250 human pituitary glands have been processed by this method. The mean prolactin content per pituitary gland has been found to be 73 IU.


1962 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell N. Ward ◽  
Earl F. Walborg ◽  
Harry S. Lipscomb ◽  
Roger Guillemin

ABSTRACT Fractionation of monkey pituitary glands gave an oxytocin fraction in low yield which showed a counter-current distribution coefficient equivalent to that obtained with oxytocin from other species. Fractionation and chromatography of monkey vasopressin on carboxymethyl cellulose gave arginine-vasopressin of 60% purity, based on amino acid analysis and specific activity. Counter-current distribution on a small scale gave arginine-vasopressin of 89% purity. Reports by others that monkey pituitary glands contain arginine-vasopressin, based on pharmacological activities, are substantiated by the chemical data presented here.


1960 ◽  
Vol XXXIII (II) ◽  
pp. 255-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. S. Ramaswami ◽  
A. B. Lakshman

ABSTRACT By using enzymes, the gonadotrophic factors in the skipper-frog pituitary glands have been selectively inactivated or destroyed. By incubating a known number of pituitary gland homogenate with ptyalin in a constant temperature bath for 5–6 h the follicle-stimulating factor is inactivated; with trypsin or pepsin, the luteinizing factor is inactivated. Bioassay on gravid skipper-frogs indicate that the ptyalin digested homogenate brings about profuse spawning while the trypsin or pepsin digested homogenates do not. When a combination of ptyalin digested and trypsin digested homogenates is injected into fresh gravid skipper-frogs, poor spawning is brought about. These experiments show that the luteinizing factor alone brings about more profuse spawning than when it is combined with the follicle-stimulating factor. It is likely, therefore, that in the lower vertebrates the luteinizing factor of the pituitary gland plays a more predominant role. The exact proportions in which the different dosages for the control and test animals are administered are also tabulated.


1975 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-233
Author(s):  
P. Dandona ◽  
D. J. El Kabir ◽  
F. Naftolin ◽  
P. C. B. MacKinnon

1. The effect of long-acting thyroid stimulator (LATS) on the serum luteinizing hormone (LH) levels of the rat in pro-oestrus has been studied. 2. The injection of three out of four LATS-containing immunoglobulin G fractions caused an increase in amounts of serum LH. 3. Adrenalectomy and dexamethasone suppression did not alter this response. 4. Injection of large doses of adrenocorticotrophic hormone did not produce any increase in serum concentrations of LH. 5. It is postulated that LATS may have a direct effect on the release of LH from the pituitary gland.


1984 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Mena ◽  
G. Martínez-Escalera ◽  
C. Clapp ◽  
C. E. Grosvenor

ABSTRACT Adenohypophysial prolactin of lactating rats was pulse-labelled by [3H]leucine injected i.v. at the time of removal of the pups. The [3H]prolactin concentration in the pituitary gland, analysed by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, progressively fell as the time from labelling to removal of the pituitary gland increased from 8 to 24 h, which suggests that there was a loss of hormone as it aged within the gland. Suckling effectively provoked the depletion–transformation of total and [3H]prolactin (extracted at pH 7·2) when applied after 8 h but not when applied after either 16 or 24 h after removing the pups. In rats whose pups were removed for 8 h, suckling also depleted–transformed [3H]prolactin labelled 4 h, but not that labelled 1 h before suckling. The pituitary glands of other lactating rats were labelled with [3H]leucine injected i.v. at various times before removing the glands and incubating them in medium 199. The secretion into the medium of [3H]prolactin labelled either 4, 8, 16 or 24 h beforehand was maximal during the first 30 min then declined from 30 to 240 min of incubation. However, secretion of prolactin labelled 1 h and 10 min beforehand reached a maximum after 0·5–1 h and 2 h of incubation respectively, then remained constant during the remainder of the 4-h incubation period. The total 4-h secretion of [3H]prolactin was greatest (65% of preincubation concentration) from those glands labelled 4 h before in contrast to those labelled 10 min (15%) or 1 (38%), 8 (34%), 16 (18%) or 24 h (26%) before incubation. Taken together, these data suggest that prolactin synthesized 4 h earlier is more likely to be released in response to physiological stimuli than is more recently formed prolactin or prolactin which has remained in the pituitary gland for 16 h or longer. J. Endocr. (1984) 101, 27–32


1935 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-390.2 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Masson Gulland ◽  
Sydney Stewart Randall

1983 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. McNicol ◽  
H. Thomson ◽  
C. J. R. Stewart

The distribution of specifically stained corticotrophic cells has been studied in the pituitary glands of 11 dogs with pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism. The results suggest that the disease is not a single entity, and that some cases are caused by primary abnormality of the pituitary gland whereas others appear to be the result of dysfunction of the hypothalamus or central nervous system. The patterns correspond closely to those demonstrated in the human pituitary gland in Cushing's disease, and confirm that the canine disease is a useful model for the study of the pathogenesis of the variants of the condition.


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