HISTOLOGICAL AND HISTOMETRICAL STUDIES ON THE ADENOHYPOPHYSEAL CELLS IN CASTRATED MALE RATS, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON A CONTRADICTION OF CLASSIFYING THE GONADOTROPH AND THE THYROTROPH

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Abstract
The pituitary anterior lobes of male rats castrated at the age of 45 days were investigated histologically and histometrically at various time-intervals of between 10 and 300 days after operation. The total number of the cells of the glands was counted on the serial sections made of the glands stained with PAS-iron hematoxylin, aldehyde thionin-PAS-luxol fast blue, alcian blue-orange G and azan. There was a tendency that thyrotrophs began to decrease in number between the 90th and 300th day after operation. Histometrically, the hypertrophied gonadotrophs, whether or not they became signet-ring cells, were found to increase gradually in number. The cell-height of thyroid follicles increased about twice as much as normal within 60 to 300 days after castration. This may suggest a chronic hyperfunction of the thyroid. The stimulated sign of the thyroid and a concurrent loss of thyrotrophs in the hypophysis are in contradistinction to a view that the thyrotroph is the only cell producing TSH. The flexible interpretation is, therefore, necessary when a distinction between thyrotrophs and gonadotrophs is to be made. In our observation there was some evidence which favoured the necessity of such an interpretation. In short, it was found that the thyrotrophs and gonadotrophs were not essentially independent. They seemed to be transient forms of a cell at different stages of its transformation into a basophil.

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