Increased microvessel density in the pituitarires of pregnant women

Abstract

Pituitary enlargement, development of pregnancy cells and prolactin cell hyperplasia are known to occur in pregnancy. In the present work, we assessed microvessel densities in the 20 pituitaries of pregnant women who passed away. Twenty pituitaries of age matched non‐pregnant women who died from non‐endocrine diseases were used as controls. The autopsy obtained pituitaries were formalin fixed and paraffin embedded. Slides were immunostained for adenohypophysial hormones and for CD‐34, an endothelial cell biomarker using the streptavidin‐biotin‐ peroxidase complex method. Microvessel densities were evaluated quantitatively in 10 random high‐ power fields. For statistical analysis, the chi‐square and Fisher exact tests were applied.The results confirmed that the pituitaries of pregnant women increased in weight and contained more PRL immunopositive cells compared to the controls. The formation of pregnancy cells was also evident. In the pituitaries of pregnant women compared to the control, microvessel densities were significantly higher. The cause of increased vascularity remains to be evaluated.This work was supported by the Jarislowsky and Lloyd Carr‐Harris Foundations.