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Localization of Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone in the Human Hypothalamus and Pituitary Stalk^*

HAIM WERNER, ELI OKON, MATI FRIDKIN and YITZHAK KOCH

Departments of Hormone Research and Organic Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100
Department of Pathology Hadassah UniversityHospital Jerusalem Israel

Address requests for reprints to: Haim Werner, Department of Hormone Research, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.

The localization of the recently identified GHreleasing hormone (GHRH) in the human hypothalamus and pituitary stalk was determined by microdissection techniques and a specific RIA for GHRH. The highest concentrations of GHRH immunoreactivity (IR-GHRH) in the hypothalamus were found in the area of the infundibular nucleus (83 ± 4 ng/ mg protein; average ± range). Lower quantities were found in other hypothalamic regions. Very high concentrations of IRGHRH were present in the upper portion of the pituitary stalk (1454 ± 48 ng/mg protein), and they decreased gradually toward the distal end of the stalk (21 ± 3 ng/mg). This concentration gradient suggests that the peptide reaches the anterior pituitary mainly by way of the long portal vessels. Somatostatin, the second neuropeptide involved in the regulation of GH secretion from the anterior pituitary, had a pattern of distribution along the pituitary stalk very similar to that of IR-GHRH.

^* This work was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Adlai E. Stevenson III Professor of Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology.

Received July 16, 1985.