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Regulation of secretory granule formation in chronically hypersecretory melanotrophs in the rat pituitary

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Abstract

The formation of secretory granules in chronically hypersecretory melanotrophs in the rat pituitary was studied. Hypersecretion was induced by treatment with the dopamine antagonist haloperidol (1.5 mg/kg daily for 7 days), which releases the normal neural dopaminergic inhibition of secretion from the melanotroph. Morphometric analysis showed a 100% increase in the volume fraction of granular endoplasmic reticulum after haloperidol treatment, while the volume fractions of electron-dense granules, electron-lucent granules and the Golgi apparatus were unaltered. The mean diameter of the mature secretory granules was increased by 10%, indicating a 30% increase in mean granule volume. A similar increase in diameter was observed in condensing granules within the Golgi area. With earlier results on the effect of chronic inhibition the study shows that a main adaptive response of the melanotroph to altered secretory conditions is a change in the volume of the secretory granules, regulated by a mechanism that operates at an early stage of granule formation.

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  1. Department of Anatomy, University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 9, SF-00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Nils Bäck & Seppo Soinila

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  1. Nils Bäck
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  2. Seppo Soinila
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Bäck, N., Soinila, S. Regulation of secretory granule formation in chronically hypersecretory melanotrophs in the rat pituitary. Cell Tissue Res 275, 339–344 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00319432

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