QUANTITATIVE STUDIES ON THE STRUCTURAL CHANGES INDUCED IN THE ANTERIOR HYPOPHYSIS BY INJECTIONS OF OESTRIN1

Abstract

Numerous investigators (1–12) have reported that injection of oestrin or implantation of ovarian tissue into castrated female rats either prevented or caused a regression of castration changes in the anterior pituitary and that injection of sufficient amounts of oestrin induced changes in the anterior lobe comparable to those of pregnancy. Concerning the more specific action, Wolfe (13) reported that injections of large amounts of oestrin for 12 days resulted in a marked but variable weight increase in the pituitary, a finding also noted by others (10, 14, 15). Morphologically (16), it was found that the basophiles were markedly degranulated and that the relative percentages of these cells were extremely reduced. Many eosinophiles also presented loss of granules and a variable reduction in relative percentage. Many eosinophiles were partially degranulated and swollen and many had an enlarged negative image of the Golgi apparatus. The chromophobes were markedly increased both in relative percentage and in the mean number of cells counted per section. Many of these cells were enlarged and had an hypertrophied negative image of the Golgi apparatus. Large numbers of mitoses were found in the eosinophiles and the chromophobes.