Immunofluorescent localization of growth hormone and prolactin in the adenohypophysis of fetal sheep.

Abstract

An indirect fluorescent antibody technique has been used to determine the first appearance and subsequent development in ovine fetal pituitaries of specific cellular sites of reaction to fluorescein-labeled antibodies developed against ovine GH and ovine prolactin. Herlant’s tetrachrome staining technique was also employed for cellular differentiation of adenohypophyseal acidophils. In older fetuses, newborn lambs and adult ewes, Herlant’s stain effectively differentiated 2 types of pituitary acidophils, orange “aurantiphils” and reddish “erythrophils.” The fluorescent antibody technique established that only the aurantiphils exhibited fluorescence with anti-GH; the erythrophils specifically responded with antiprolactin. Specific fluorescence with anti-GH was absent in fetal pituitaries of less than 43 days of fetal age; it was first observed between 43 and 53 days. At about 58 days and thereafter, anti-GH fluorescence was present in the anterior pituitary in abundance, initially at a period when Herlant’...