Fine structure of the mouse anterior pituitary maintained in a short-term incubation system.

Abstract

Anterior pituitaries of mice were incubated for periods up to four hours in Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate glucose gassed with 95% O2∶5% CO2. The incubated explants survived and retained a fine structure that approximated the condition in situ. The few necrotic cells were sharply localized, and were found to be due to initial mechanical damage to the tissue. Some cells of the six granulated types exhibited slight but significant changes attributable to the liberation from the hypothalamic control: in LTH cells there was a release of preexisting granules and a development of cell organelles, whereas in other cell types there was an inhibition of release of granules and an enhanced digestion of the accumulated granules by the lysosomal system. Follicular cells responded uniquely to the changed environment by hypertrophy of the cytoplasm and were found to phagocytize cell debris. A part of non-epithelial elements of the gland showed a tendency to modulate cytologically.