THE DELTA CELL OF THE HUMAN ADENOHYPOPHYSIS: ITS RESPONSE TO ACUTE AND CHRONIC ILLNESS*

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Abstract
The delta cell of the human adenohypophysis is a sub-type of basophil that can be distinguished easily with the iron-PAS stain. It stains blue-purple in contrast to the red beta cell. In a necropsy study of pituitary cytology in the human subject, it was found that the percentage of delta cells changed significantly with increasing duration of the terminal illness, while the other cell types remained relatively constant. In patients dying within twenty-four hours of the onset of the final illness, the average percentage of delta cells was 8.5. Illnesses lasting longer than two weeks were accompanied by a decrease in the percentage of delta cells to 1.9. In an intermediate group of patients whose terminal disease lasted from twenty-four hours to fourteen days, the average percentage of delta cells was 4.5. This temporal pattern of degranulation in acute illness, and the absence of delta cells in the pituitaries of children and pregnant women, suggest that the human delta cell is the source of one or more of the pituitary gonadotropins.