Etude immunocytologique des cellules corticotropes de plusieurs expèces de poissons téléostéens: Gasterosteus aculeatus L., Carassius auratus L., Lebistes reticulatus P., Salmo irldeus Gibbs et Perca fluviatilis L

Abstract

In Gasterosteus aculeatus, Lebistes reticulatus, Salmo irideus and Perca fhwiatilis several cell layers of the dorso-rostral pituitary display a strong positive immunocytological reaction with β1–24 ACTH. In Carassius auratus, the positive cells are dispersed among the other proadenohypophysial cells. The same cells are not positive with an antiαl7–39 ACTH or with an antiαMSH. They correspond to the corticotropic cells which stain with lead hematoxylin and alizarin blue of Herlant's tetrachrome stain. But in Lebistes reticulatus and in Gasterosteus aculeatus, one cell type of the mesoadenohypophysis, and a cluster of cells belonging to the metaadenohypophysis (G. aculeatus), are positive with antiα17–39 ACTH. These cells do not react with the β1–24 fraction of the ACTH molecule. It remains to be settled whether these immunocytological results point to the presence of 2 types of corticotropic cells in the pituitary of some species of teleost fishes, or whether the cells reacting with α17–39 ACTH merely produce some immunologically related substance with or without biological activity.