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Analysis of Mammosomatotropic Cells in Normal and Neoplastic Human Pituitary Tissues by the Reverse Hemolytic Plaque Assay and Immunocytochemistry^*

RICARDO V. LLOYD, DAWN ANAGNOSTOU, MARIA CANO, ARIEL L. BARKAN and WILLIAM F. CHANDLER

Departments of Pathology (R.V.L., D.A., M.C.), Medicine (Division of Endocrinology) (A.L.B.), and Surgery (Section of Neurosurgery) (W.F.C.), University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: R. V. Lloyd, M.D., Department of Pathology, University of Michigan 2G332, Box 0054, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.

The reverse hemolytic plaque assay (RHPA) was used to study hormone release from cultured normal and neoplastic human pituitary cells. The RHPA revealed a lower percentage of GH- and PRL-producing cells in normal and neoplastic pituitaries compared to the percentage of these cells revealed by immunocytochemical (ICC) staining for GH and PRL. Normal pituitary tissues as well as some PRL- or GHproducing adenomas contained large numbers of mammosomatotropic (MS) cells when analyzed by RHPA, combined RHPAICC, and ultrastructural immunohistochemistry with immunogold labeling. The percentage of GH and PRL cells in normal pituitaries ranged from 37–51% and 30–60%, respectively, by RHPA, while the percentage of MS cells ranged from 29–49%. The percentage of GH and PRL cells in normal pituitaries estimated by ICC ranged from 53–65% and 32–55%, respectively, while the percentage of MS cells estimated with this technique ranged from 26–50%. Double labeling with the immunogold technique detected GH and PRL in the same cells and within the same granules in both normal and neoplastic pituitary cells. These results indicate that MS cells are present in normal human pituitaries as well as in some pituitary adenomas, and in some pituitaries these two hormones are stored within the same secretory granules.

^* This work was supported in part by NIH Grants CA-42951 and CA-37238. Presented in part at the 1987 Meeting of The Endocrine Society (Abstract 401).

Recipient of a Career Development Research Associate Award from the V.A.

Received August 28, 1987.

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