Summary
Acetylcholine was measured by bioassay and cholinesterases by colorimetric assay and by light and electron microscopical histochemistry in the pars nervosa, pars intermedia and pars distalis of the rat, rabbit and domestic pig pituitaries. The highest ACh concentration was found in the rat pituitary. More butyrylcholinesterases and less acetylcholinesterase was found in the rat pituitary than in the rabbit and pig pituitaries. Light microscopical histochemistry showed greater depositions of reaction products in the rat pituitary than in the other two species. This was predominantly due to butyrylcholinesterases in the pars nervosa-pars intermedia junctional region of the rat pituitary. Electron microscopical histochemistry was of limited value for quantitative estimates of distribution and localization of cholinesterases. However, the ultrastructural localization showed that most of the reaction product in the pars nervosa was associated with pituicytes with little or no reaction product in the neurosecretory terminals or in other nerve terminals. In the pars intermedia, the reaction products were primarily on the membranes of the nuclei and endoplasmic reticulum, and in some nerve terminals. No conclusions concerning the role of acetylcholine and cholinesterase in the release of the neurosecretory hormones could be made on the basis of these findings.
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Supported by Medical Research Council of Canada.
University of Calgary Postdoctoral Fellow. Present address: Department of Pharmacology, St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London S.W.1., England.
MRC (Canada) Postdoctoral Fellow.
Associate, Medical Research Council of Canada.
Research Associate of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Argentina. Present address. Anatomisches Institut der Universität, D-6300 Gießen, Friedrichstraße 24 (Federal Republic of Germany)
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Bridges, T.E., Fisher, A.W., Gosbee, J.L. et al. Acetylcholine and cholinesterases (assays and light- and electron microscopical histochemistry) in different parts of the pituitary of rat, rabbit and domestic pig. Z.Zellforsch 136, 1–18 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307676
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307676