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The organ itself is really small. It's only pea size (1cm) in diameter.

If that organ were to grow, it could become peanut sized, melon sized... can affect the structures nearby. Hypothalamus is master gland for the pituitary and the pituitary is the master gland for these endocrine organs and these tissues. Thyroid and Adrenal glands (endocrine glands) are directly influenced by pituita ry and indirectly by the hypothalamus. Mammary gland (exocrine) glands are directly influenced by the pituitary and ind irectly by the hypothalamus. - while these other organs (exocrine glands: bulbourethral glands etc) a re directly influenced by the ovary/testis but indirectly by the pituitary and hypot halamus. Picture of Pancreas: Has endocrine gland: islets secrete hormones like insulin a nd glucagon which are taken up by the capillary bed into the circulation and targery certain tissues in body. - acini cells- secrete into a lumen which become a duct... Pituitary has two parts: heavily stained part is adenohyphosis (secretory part) and the lightly stained part which is the neurohyphosis which is nerve tissue. Adenohyphosis: The pars distalis is anterior. the pars tuberalis is a sheath of cells that lines over the infundibulum. and the pars intermedia (composed of small follicles, cells are ar ound a small lumen??) lies between the pars distalis and the neurohyphysis. Neurohypophysis: Pars nervosa (doesn't stain well b/c nonmyelinated nervous tiss ue) and infundibulum. The pars nervosa sits behind the pars distalis. The infund ibular stem arises from the pars nervosa and attached itself to the base of the brain. The infundibulum has the infundibular stem and the median eminence (which is not seen when the pituiary pulled out). Naming is the most vexing thing: The anterior lobe= pars distalis= pars anterior The posterior lobe= pars intermedia and the pars nervosa and these are separated from anterior lobe by Rathke's cleft! The reason you have two parts is due to the embryology of the structure. the organ is derived from the rathke's pouch (Oral Ectoderm) and downgrowth of the brain (Neuro Ectoderm) - THe rathke's pouch is oral ectoderm that INVAGINATED... if it didn't then would have a connection to the oral cavity. The pouch has a layer o f cells with a central cavity.

- Think of it like this. The anterior part of the pouch forms the pars d istalis and pars tuberalis and the posterior part of the pouch forms the pars intermedia. Then the pars intermedia is forced to fuse with the neurohyphosis comind down. - the central cavity is what we will call rathke's cleft. There isn't really a good separation between the anterior and posterior lobe bec ause he thinks there is a breakdown of the lining.... pars intermedia fusing with pars nervosa (Slide with Orange G) towards the bottom you will get a follicle/cyst-like structure/colloid that will stain PAS+. In slide where brain cut in half: brain is normally ripped from the brain when d etached... wont see everything you will see pars dist, tuberalis, intermed. pars nervosa and infundibular stem. .. but wont see median eminence at base of hypothalamus nor the vascular supply to the pituitary because people dont take time to keep them intact Things to consider: 1 Orientation of the organ on a slide 2. Plane of sectioning: horizontal, sagittal, parasagittal, transverse, oblique 3. level of sectioning *profoundly affects what u see In one slide he shows images of horizontals sections from bottom up the pars ner vosa gets smaller and the pars distalis gets bigger. eventually the pars nervosa and pars distalis drop out and the pars tuberalis an d the infundibular stem (2 cm)= from which the pituitary dangles from brain.

Blood Vessels: Superior and Inferior hypophyseal arteries = SHown in Red Hypophyseal capillaries in the median eminence and the infundibular stem. portal veins= shown in teal capilary bed in black in anterior and posterior part (fenestrated Sinusoids with diaphragms) and hypophyseal veins in blue ** Superior Hypophyseal artery branches to an anterior branch goes to median emi nence and posterior branch goes to infundibulum the capilaries then penetrate into the median eminence and the infundibular stem come out and coalesce into portal vessels that run the surface of the organ then penetrate into the pars distalis and become contin uous with capillary bed in adenohypophysis. So, thus in summary, the anterior branch of the superior hypophyseal artery supp lies median eminence and infundibular stem and anterior lobe those releasing factors are carried from the hypothalamus through the portal vei ns to the pars distalis (and adenohyophysis) The posterior side main supply is the inferior hypophyseal artery and the capill ary beds take up Oxytocin and ADH which go into the cirulation Capillary beds of median eminence is connected to the capillary bed (sinusoids) of the pars distalis... - some are long and some are short

Preoptic area and arcuate nucleus are involved in making the releasing factors: released into capillary beds of median eminence and carried down the vessels into the pars distalis and effect the cells there. supraoptic and periventricular nucleus make oxytocin and adh... carried by hypot halamohypophyseal tract terminate in pars nervosa...the terminals of the fiber r eleased into the extra Sagittal section: He shows pars distalis, tuberalis, intermedia, nervosa, infund ibular stem. * But won't see the (long) portal veins which will be on the surface (because ri pped off when pituitary taken out). in the inferior part of the organ you do see a capsule with the inferior portal veins you will see the sinusoids in the pars tuberalis (from the median eminence area) and also the sinusoids in the pars distalis... Slide with cell bunches surrounded by sinusoids (the capillary beds)... they are called this because they can fit more than one RBC so they are called sinusoids... and fenestrated which helps hormones movement into the sinu soids and diaphragms (kidney glomerulus only place that doesn't have it) 3 cell types (hue because of chromophil (colored cells) due to secretory granule s) acidophil - stain with eosin (pink/red) produce Prolactin and GH basophil- stains with hematoxylin (blue/ lavender) TSH, ACTH, FSH, LH (ICSH) chromaphobe- cytoplasm doesn't stain.... (poorly stained version of the other tw o cells, inactive!, degranulated/reduced number of organelles, nucleus is dense) - lysosomes degraded the organelles as it went to the inactive s tate - alternatively, maybe it produces and releases the hormones so fast that it doesnt store anything... whereas the chromatrophs are inactive and not stained with dense nuclei but can' t see nucleoli the other two are lightly stained with prominent nuclei.

Mallory stain: aciophils-red/ basophils- blue and chromophobes- no color. Acidophils lie along the lateral wing basophils occupy more the center of the organ PAS+ acidophils are yellow and basophils are magenta/dark red chromophobes no color.... - they are in clusters (may be called acini= but they are not because in pancreas they open into a central lumen) rather here these clusters of cells all touch sinusoid and clus ter are separated by sinusoids EM- different sized grandules... mammotroph= some are round and some are quite i rregular shaped. somatotroph- another cell where the the granules are uniformly round,smaller sha pe. corticotroph- another cell that is lightly stained electron loose and doesnt sta in well, granules are smaller than the other two cells and all aggregated along

cell membrane. (not sure how he exactly knows this ... whatever) Pituitary has 5 cells that secrete 6 hormones- antibody stainted for only one ho rmone secreted by cell except one. Neurohypophysis doesn't stain well because no granule secreting cell, its all ne ural tissue - no chromophiles *Periventricular and suproptic nucle make ADH and oxytocin and where the y terminate they release it into the sinusoids around the pars nervosa and circu alted to the body. You will see nuclei of pituicytes and some of endothelial cells prob. he also shows the hypothalamophyseal tract on his slide but says its tough to fi nd - tract is made up of 100,000 nerve fibers., thin, non-myelinated, two t ypes A (varying density of granules) and B (very dense granules) - they have bulbous expansions of the fiber's cell membrane called Herri ng bodies- contain neurosecretory granules and organelles. Pituicytes are round darkly stained... glial cells a form of astrocyes... have processess but in H&E don't see anything but the nucleus...

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