CYTO-PHYSIOLOGIC ASPECTS OF THYROTROPHICHORMONE SECRETION IN THE GOITROUS GUINEA PIG*

Abstract

The assignment of cell types to specific hormone secretions in theadenohypophysis continues to thwart proper understanding of the mechanisms underlying thyroid-hypophyseal interplay. Earlier opinion (Severinghaus, 1937) favored the pituitary acidophile as the source of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) but recent investigations, based largely on the rat, more clearly implicate the basophiles (Griesbach and Purves, 1945; Brolin, 1945; Goldberg and Chaikoff, 1949; and Halmi, 1950). Purves and Griesbach (1951) moreover, have applied histochemical procedures to the rat adenohypophysis which allegedly discriminate between thyrotrophic and gonadotrophic hormone producing cells routinely classed as basophiles. Despite the apparent relationship between thyroid activation and pituitary basophilia (D’Angelo, 1941; Griesbach, 1951), cellular localization of TSH production in the hypophysis is not satisfactorily established. The general failure to demonstrate increased content of TSH in the rat pituitary after procedures (thyroxine deficiency, coldwhich presumably activate the thyrotrophic mechanism clouds interpretationof its morphology (Kuschinsky, 1935; Turner and Cupps, 1940;Griesbach and Purves, 1943).