| pubmed-article:4141489 | pubmed:otherAbstract | PIP: It was found that the recognition of the character of a pituitary cell depended on its content of granules. The term "chromophobe" indicated the absence of granules. In the rat pituitary, total thyroxine deficiency resulted in progressive loss of granules from acidophil cells until they became unrecognizable as such. Therefore, counting the cell types as acidophils, basophils, and chromophobes had no significance. However, changes in the apparent proportions of the 3 groups could be used to determine how much thyroxine was needed to reverse changes produced by thyroidectomy. Rats that had been given brassica seed diets developed goiters. In these rats, proliferation of basophil cells occurred. The amount of thyroxine needed to reverse thyroidectomy changes was the same in rats receiving a brassica seed diet as in those on a normal diet. This excluded the possibility of the brassica agent acting as a thyroxine antagonist or of its increasing the thyroxine requirement of the animal. The effect of thyroidectomy was modified by diet. When a diet contained no animal products, the acidophils lost their granules. When acidophil granules were lost, growth ceased. When aciodphil granules had been lost after thyroidectomy, daily doses of thyroxine restored the acidophils and caus ed growth to resume. In animals given potent goitrogens, small doses of thyroxine did not inhibit activation of the thyroid gland, but with larg er doses basophilic changes regressed and the thyroid became inactive. It is concluded that basophil changes were linked with the production of thyrotrophic hormone while acidophil changes which were regressive were related to the failure of growth hormone secretion. When only a single change in hormone production occurs and only a single cell type is modified in the pituitary, that cell type is considered to be the site of production of that particular hormone. By improved technique, it was shown that the basophil cells were of 2 types: "thymotrophs," which prod uced thyrotrophin, and "gonadotrophs," which produced gonadotropin. The granules were considered to be the stored hormone product of the cells. It seemed that follicle stimulating hormone was secreted by 1 cell type and luteinizing hormone by another. Each specific hormonal function was thought to be performed by a specific cell type. In the fish pituitary gland, 5 distinctive cell types are recognizable by selective staining. In human problems, the inactivity of the thyrotrophs in pituitary glands from Graves' disease patients confirms that the source of thyroid stimulation comes from outside the pituitary gland. In Cushing's disease, that the adrenal stimulation was caused by basophilic adenomata in the adenohypophysis was confirmed. | lld:pubmed |
