Morphometric and ultrastructural analysis of different pituitary cell populations in undernourished monkeys

Undernutrition elicited by a low-protein diet determines a marked reduction of hypophyseal activity and affects the function of the respective target organs. The objective of the present investigation was to study the ultrastructural and quantitative immunohistochemical changes of the different pitu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Console de Avegliano, Gloria Miriam, Jurado, Susana Beatriz, Oyhenart, Evelia Edith, Ferese, C., Pucciarelli, Hector Mario, Gomez Dumm, Cesar Leandro Alberto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2001
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/84626
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/84626
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:PITUITARY GLAND
QUANTITATIVE IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY
SQUIRREL MONKEYS
ULTRASTRUCTURE
UNDERNUTRITION
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3
Descripción
Sumario:Undernutrition elicited by a low-protein diet determines a marked reduction of hypophyseal activity and affects the function of the respective target organs. The objective of the present investigation was to study the ultrastructural and quantitative immunohistochemical changes of the different pituitary cell populations in undernourished monkeys that had been previously shown to have significant changes in craniofacial growth. Twenty Saimiri sciureus boliviensis monkeys of both sexes were used. The animals were born in captivity and were separated into two groups at one year of age, i.e., control and undernourished animals. The monkeys were fed ad libitum a 20% (control group) and a 10% (experimental group) protein diet for two years. Pituitaries were processed for light and electron microscopy. The former was immunolubeled with anti-GH, -PRL, -LH, -FSH, -ACTH, and -TSH sera. Volume density and cell density were measured using an image analyzer. Quantitative immunohistochemistry revealed a decrease in these parameters with regard to somatotrophs, lactotrophs, gonadotrophs and thyrotrophs from undernourished animals compared to control ones. In these populations, the ultrastructural study showed changes suggesting compensatory hyperfunction. On the contrary, no significant changes were found in the morphometric parameters or the ultrastructure of the corticotroph population. We conclude that in undernourished monkeys the somatotroph, lactotroph, gonadotroph, and thyrotroph cell populations showed quantitative immunohistochemical changes that can be correlated with ultrastructural findings.