Summary
The neurohypophysis of sexually mature male and female Acipenser güldenstädti Brandt and Acipenser stellatus Pallas was studied light and electron microscopically. The recessus hypophysei lined with ependymal cells of two main types, “narrow” and “wide”, are in the center of the neurohypophysial “roots”. Processes from both cell types run radially to the basement membrane of the connective tissue layers abutting on the hypophysial intermediate lobe. Protrusions penetrating deep into the recessus hypophyseus are found in the apical parts of the “wide” cells. Pituicytes are rare in the neurohypophysis. The ultrastructure of both ependymal cell types and of the pituicytes is described. Nonmyelinated “Gomori-positive” (peptidergic) neurosecretory A1 and A2 type fibres and their terminals containing elementary neurosecretory granules (1400–1800 Å and 1000–1400 Å respectively) are the main structural elements of the neurohypophysis. Some “dark” and single myelinated neurosecretory fibres have been found. The adrenergic fibres (type B) were described earlier (Polenov et al., 1972a). The structural peculiarities of the neurohypophysis are discussed in functional and comparative-morphological terms.
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Polenov, A.L., Garlov, P.E. The hypothalamo-hypophysial system in acipenseridae. Z.Zellforsch 136, 461–477 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307364
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307364