THE PITUITARY GLAND This is a small, bean-shaped structure that lies at the base of the brain within the confines of the sella turcica. It is connected to the hypothalamus by a "stalk," composed of axons extending from the hypothalamus. The pituitary is composed of two morphologically and functionally distinct components: the anterior lobe (adenohypophysis) and the posterior lobe (neurohypophys...

Introduction: Rathke cleft cysts (RCC’s) are cystic sellar and supra sellar benign lesions which are thought to originate from the remnants of Rathke’s pouch. There are no specific clinical or radiological signs to differentiate them from other pituitary lesions. Presentation of Case: We report a 25-year-old female presented with hyperandrogenism and menstrual disorder, with the preliminary ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the cause of death and incidence of neoplasia in patients treated with human pituitary growth hormone. DESIGN A long term cohort study established to receive details of death certification and tumour registrations through the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and NHS central register. PATIENTS All patients (1246 male, 662 female) treated for short stature with...

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has recently been localized in the rat hypothalamus. We have evaluated the effects of NPY on hypothalamic and pituitary function by injecting NPY into the third ventricle in vivo and by examining its action on perifused pituitary cells in vitro. Injections of NPY into the third ventricle of conscious ovariectomized rats led to a dramatic and highly significant reduction in ...

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and gonadotropins are indispensable hormones for maintaining female reproductive functions. In a similar manner to other endocrine hormones, GnRH and gonadotropins are controlled by their principle regulators. Although it has been previously established that GnRH regulates the synthesis and secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating horm...

Hypothalamic-pituitary activity was investigated in 20 women with primary amenorrhoea, in whom gonadal dysgenesis and lower Müllerian duct anomalies had been excluded. There was no specific or uniform pattern of response to luteinising hormone-releasing hormone and no evidence of a common defect at pituitary-hypothalamic level to account for the absence of spontaneous menstruation. Six women ha...

The effect of long-term treatment with phenobarbitone on pituitary responsiveness to gonadotrophin-releasing hormone and thyrotrophin-releasing hormone was studied in 20 boys being treated with the drug to prevent febrile convulsions. Baseline concentrations of luteinising and follicle-stimulating hormones were reduced as well as the responses of these hormones to stimulation with gonadotrophin...

A highly purified follicle-stimulating hormone from human pituitary glands has been prepared by ammonium sulfate and ethanol fractionation, gel filtration on Sephadex G-100, ion exchange chromatography on carboxymethyl cellulose, zone electrophoresis on cellulose columns, and preparative continuous flow polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The final product has shown lO,OOO-fold purification ove...