Differential Stain for the Human and Animal Anterior Hypophysis

Abstract

A staining method is described for human and animal pituitary glands which is based on a combination of a modification of the phosphomolybdic acid, orange G stain of Berblinger and Burgdorf's (1935) method, with an iron hematoxylin stain for the nuclei and with the periodic-acid-Schiff routine of Hotchkiss and McManus. The cytochemical part of the procedure demonstrates both muco-protein precursors of the gonadotropins and, it is thought, these hormones themselves. By comparison with other methods, finer differences in the cytology of the cyanophils can be appreciated. Quantitative cell counts are readily performed and large numbers of cells, appearing by Mallory and other histological methods to be chromophobes, are found to belong to the cyanophil series. Counts done by older methods, therefore, are considered to be inaccurate and misleading.