THE ANATOMY OF THE PITUITARY BODY 



trophy could not be correlated with the number of either 

 cell type. Therefore, she surmised that the adrenal cortical 

 stimulating hormone is secreted by the basophils (see also 

 pp. 15, 21-22). 



The change in the morphology of the pituitary character- 

 istic of adrenal insufficiency is a reduction, sometimes very 

 marked, in the percentage of basophils. Grollman and Firor 

 (1935) found that this change, accompanied by an increased 

 vascularity of the pituitary, is very marked in the dog. In the 

 rat the reduction of the number of basophils is less promi- 

 nent; however, the staining of these cells is "very abnormal." 

 Recently, the cells of the hypophyses from patients with 

 severe adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease or atrophy of 

 adrenals) have been counted by several investigators (Crooke 

 and Russell, 1935; Hawking, 1936). The percentage of baso- 

 phils was found to be greatly reduced (e.g., 0.06-0.5 per cent 

 compared with 7-1 1 per cent in a normal series).'^ A con- 

 siderable number of abnormal transitional basophils was en- 

 countered in the series of Crooke and Russell. The propor- 

 tion of oxyphils also was abnormally low, whereas the propor- 

 tion of reserve cells was abnormally high. 



3. The pancreas. — After repeated injections of insulin into 

 guinea pigs, the pars glandularis is said to be composed of an 

 increased number of oxyphils with a corresponding diminu- 

 tion in the number of reserve cells (Kahn, 1935). On the 

 other hand. Gentile and Amato (1936) stated that pan- 

 createctomy in the dog is also followed by an increase in the 

 proportion of oxyphils which, however, appear relatively 

 nongranular. The volume of all the cells was found to be 

 increased. Kahn and Waledinskaja (1936) concluded that 

 partial pancreatectomy in the rabbit is followed by degenera- 

 tive changes in the oxyphils and that the magnitude of these 

 changes depends upon the degree of pancreatic insufficiency. 

 An investigation of the pituitary of normal cats and of cats 



'* Confirmatory reports without cell-counts have been published by Andreis 

 (1935) and Meesen (1935). 



[23] 



