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Growth Hormone in the Normal Human Pharyngeal Pituitary Gland

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Abstract

THE pharyngeal pituitary gland is a small embryological remnant constantly present in man in the submucosa of the nasopharynx1,2. In some patients it is formed of squamous or undifferentiated epithelial cells (“inactivated” type)3, in others there is adenohypophyseal differentiation (“activated” type)3 and in a few the two patterns are mixed4. The “activated” type is usually described as having abundant chromophobic cells, occasional acidophil cells and very few basophil cells1,3, but McGrath4 has reported that basophil cells can be the most conspicuous cells in some “activated” glands. It has been suggested that the pharyngeal pituitary gland is capable of playing a compensatory part in pituitary function3,5, since adenohypophyseal differentiation is said to be more prominent in the pharyngeal pituitary gland after sellar pituitary gland ablation3,5,6, but there is no evidence of hyperplasia of these pharyngeal pituitary glands7. We have now investigated the localization of human growth hormone (HGH) antigen in the pharyngeal pituitary gland with the indirect immunofluorescence (IF) technique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of Aberdeen,

    J. L. MCPHIE & J. SWANSON BECK

Authors
  1. J. L. MCPHIE
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  2. J. SWANSON BECK
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MCPHIE, J., BECK, J. Growth Hormone in the Normal Human Pharyngeal Pituitary Gland. Nature 219, 625–626 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/219625a0

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