Summary
Nuclear uptake and retention of3H-estradiol by luteinizing hormone (LH) and prolactin (PRL) cells was examined in three species of rodents (guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils) using the combined techniques of immunocyto-chemistry and autoradiography. Castrated animals were injected with3H-estradiol and decapitated 1.5 h later. The pituitary glands were processed for thaw-mount autoradiography followed by conventional immunocytochemical staining for LH and PRL.3H-estradiol accumulated in more than 80% of the anterior pituitary cells in the gerbils, while only 33 and 22% of the cells accumulated3H-estradiol in the hamsters and guinea pigs, respectively. A varying percentage of immunoreactive LH and PRL cells in all three species were found also to contain binding sites for estradiol. Some LH and PRL cells in hamsters and guinea pigs and only some in PRL cells of gerbils were found to be devoid of grains. Quantitative analysis revealed that the number of grains per nucleus differed considerably from cell to cell. LH cells of guinea pigs accumulated much larger amounts of3H-estradiol than did the PRL cells, while the LH cells in the hamsters and gerbils accumulated only slightly more3H-estradiol than the PRL cells.
These results confirm the previous observations in rats and baboons that demonstrated tremendous species differences in percentage of cells in the anterior pituitary gland that accumulated3H-estradiol. Also, these data suggest that there are functionally heterogeneous cell types among the LH and PRL cells in hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils as has been previously demonstrated in rats and baboons.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beauvillain JC, Mazzuca M, Dubois MP (1977) The prolactin and growth-hormone producing cells of the guinea pig pituitary. Cell Tissue Res 184:343–358
Herbert DC, Sheridan PJ (1983) Uptake and retention of sex steroids by the baboon pituitary gland-evidence of sexual dimorphism with respect to dihydrotestosterone. Biol Reprod 28:377–383
Herbert DC, Sheridan PJ (1984) Identification of the progesterone target cells in the female baboon pituitary gland. Biol Reprod 30:479–483
Herbert DC, Weaker FJ, Sheridan PJ (1982) Identification of target cells for estrogen in the pars distalis of the armadillo by immunocytochemistry. Gen Comp Endocrinol 47:99–103
Keefer DA (1980) In vivo estrogen uptake by individual cell types of the rat anterior pituitary after short term castration and adrenalectomy. Cell Tissue Res 209:167–175
Keefer DA (1981a) Quantification of in vivo3H-estrogen uptake by individual anterior pituitary cell types of the male rats: a combined autoradiographic-immunocytochemical technique. J Histochem Cytochem 29:167–174
Keefer DA (1981b) Induction by progesterone of a sexual dimorphism of estrogen uptake by anterior pituitary cells in situ. Cell Tissue Res 215:75–86
Keefer DA, Dryden GL (1982) Nuclear uptake of radioactivity by cells of pituitary, brain, uterus and vagina of the Asian musk shrew (Suncus murinus) following (3H) estradiol administration. Gen Comp Endocrinol 47:125–130
Keefer DA, Stumpf WE, Petrusz P (1976) Quantitative autoradiographic assessment of3H-estradiol uptake in immunocytochemically characterized pituitary cells. Cell Tissue Res 166:25–35
Nakamura F, Taya K, Sasamoto S, Yoshimura F (1985) Relationship between characteristics of immunoreactive LH/FSH cells and the levels of gonadotropin in the female rat. Acta Anat 124:104–110
Nogami H (1984) Fine structural heterogeneity and morphologic changes in rat pituitary prolactin cells after estrogen and testosterone treatment. Cell Tissue Res 227:195–202
Nogami H, Yoshimura F (1982) Fine structural criteria of prolactin cells identified immunohistochemically in the male rat. Anat Rec 202:261–274
Nogami H, Yoshimura F, Herbert DC, Aufdemorte TB, Gates GA, Holt GR, Sheridan PJ (1985a) Changes in the nuclear uptake and retention of3H-estrogen in gonadotrophs and lactotrophs as a function of age. Anat Rec 212:288–291
Nogami H, Yoshimura F, Herbert DC, Sheridan PJ (1985b) Does neonatal androgen modulate uptake and retention of3H-estradiol in gonadotrophs and lactotrophs? Cell Tissue Res 242:629–632
Nogami H, Yoshimura F, Carrillo AJ, Sharp ZD, Sheridan PJ (1985c) Estrogen induced prolactin mRNA accumulation in adult male rat pituitary as revealed by in situ hybridization. Endocrinol Jpn 32:625–634
Ozawa H, Nogami H, Yoshimura F, Ishikawa H (1986) Electron microsopic study and immunohistochemical characterization of the subtypes of anterior pituitary prolactin cells in the male hamster, as compared to those in the male rat and mouse. In: Hoshino K (ed), Kyoto Prolactin Conference Monograph. Vol. 1, pp 87–96
Pfaff DW, Gerbach JL, McEwen BS, Gerin J, Carmel P, Zimmerman EA (1976) Autoradiographic localization of hormone-concentrating cells in the brain of the female rhesus monkey. J Comp Neurol 170:279–294
Sar M, Stumpf WE (1979) Simultaneous localization of steroid and peptide hormones in rat pituitary gland by combined thawmount autoradiography and immunocytochemistry: localization of dihydrotestosterone in gonadotrophs and pituicyte. Cell Tissue Res 203:1–7
Sheridan PJ, Herbert DC (1978) Nuclear uptake and retention of androgen by the pituitary gland of the hamster and the rat. Cell Tissue Res 206:35–40
Shirasawa N, Yoshimura F, Miyashita E, Yashiro T, Sumi T, Suzuki T (1983) Quantification of immunohistochemical model sections. Cell Mol Biol 29:327–329
Stumpf WE, Sar M (1976) Autoradiographic localization of estrogen, progestin and glucocorticoid in target tissues and nontarget tissues. In: Pasqualini JR (ed), Receptors and Mechanism of Steroids Hormones, Part I, Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, pp 41–84
Stumpf WE, Sar M, Keefer DA (1975) Localization of hormones in the pituitary: receptor sites for hormones from hypophysial target cells and brain. In: Tixier-Vidal A, Farguhar MG (eds), The Anterior Pituitary. Academic Press, New York, 63–82
Suzuki K, Sakuma M, Nogami H, Yoshimura F (1986) Phasic changes in immunocytochemical stainability of pituitary luteinizing hormone cells associated with their ultrastructural changes during estrous cycle in the rat. Endocrinol Jpn 33:11–21
Warembourg M (1977) Radioautographic localization of estrogen concentrating cells in the brain and pituitary of the guinea pig. Brain Res 123:357–362
Walker AM, Farquhar MG, Peng B (1980) Preferential release of newly synthesized prolactin granule is the result of functional heterogeneity among mammotrophs. Endocrinology 107:1095–1104
Yoshimura F, Nogami H, Shirasawa N, Yashiro T (1981) A whole range of fine structural criteria of immunohistochemically identifiable LH cells in rats. Cell Tissue Res 217:1–10
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nogami, H., Herbert, D.C., Winborn, W.B. et al. Uptake and retention of3H-estradiol by gonadotrophs and lactotrophs in the pituitary glands of the guinea pig, hamster and gerbil. Cell Tissue Res. 248, 75–78 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01239965
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01239965