ON THE CELLULAR SITE OF CORTICOTROPHIN PRODUCTION

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Abstract
Adenine-C14 was administered intravenously to rats at various times after adrenalectomy. The hypophyses were studied by means of autoradiography and differential staining and labelled cells were exactly localized and defined as to type. It was shown that shortly after adrenalectomy the majority of labelled cells were small chromophobes. With increasing time after adrenalectomy a gradual shift appeared, first to large chromophobes and finally to amphophils (a particular type of large chromophobe). One and eight days after adrenalectomy, differential cell counts were performed on the hypophyses and the label index was determined for the cell types defined. The label index for small chromophobes was considerably reduced after eight days, whereas the label index for amphophils remained very high in spite of a marked increase in the number of these cells in the counts. No definite change in labelling could be found for acidophil and basophil cells with increasing time after adrenalectomy. The findings indicate that cells in an active state of synthesis are in a cyclic development, i.e. small chromophobe -large chromophobe - amphophil, with increasing time after adrenalectomy. The interpretation is that chromophobe cells are involved in the new synthesis of corticotrophin (ACTH), and that during greatly increased synthesis they increase in size, finally appearing as amphophils.

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