HYPOPHYSEAL MORPHOLOGY 



209 



intermedia cells is weakened and the S-cells 

 of the pars anterior become stainable 

 whereas the ^-cells remain stainable. The 

 difference between the species is that the 

 intermedin-secreting cells in the human 

 hypophysis are scattered throughout the 

 pars distalis and not segregated in the pars 

 intermedia. 



Hellweg (1951) obtained by silver im- 

 pregnation a specific staining of the 8-cells 

 in the human pars distalis. This staining 

 is similar to that observed by Knigge (1957) 

 in the rat, in which a specific staining of 

 Halmi's S-cells (gonadotrophs) was ob- 

 tained by silver impregnation. Ezrin, Swan- 

 son, Humphrey, Dawson and Wilson (1958) 

 obtained specific staining of 8-cells by their 

 iron-PAS method, the 8-cell granules being 

 stained by dialyzed iron which is subse- 

 quently converted to Prussian blue. A valu- 

 able feature of the iron-PAS method is that 

 it is applicable to postmortem material fixed 

 in formol-saline. 



D. FUNCTIONS OF THE BASOPHIL CELLS 

 OF THE HUMAN PARS DISTALIS 



1. The S-Cell 



Neither Hellweg (1951) nor Ezrin, 

 Swanson, Humphrey, Dawson and Wilson 

 (1958) found 8-cells in children before the 

 age of puberty, and the latter investigators 

 did not find them in the hypophyses of 

 pregnant women. This finding can be corre- 

 lated with the reduction in gonadotrophin 

 content during pregnancy (Herlant, 1943). 

 It is therefore certain that the 8-cells are 

 the source of one or more of the hypophys- 

 eal gonadotrophins. Ezrin and his associ- 

 ates found that the number of 8-cells de- 

 creases with the duration of the terminal 

 illness, being 8.5 per cent in patients dying 

 in 24 hours and 1.8 per cent in those dying 

 after 2 weeks or longer. This is in accord- 

 ance with other evidence suggesting a re- 

 duction in gonadotrojihin during chronic 

 illness. 



2. The Blue /3-Cell 



There is a considerable increase in the 

 number of hypertrojihied, lightly granu- 

 lated basophil cells in myxedema and cre- 

 tinism (Herlant, 1954b, 1958). The staining 

 reaction of these cells to Herlant's (1953b) 



PAS-orange method indicated that they are 

 blue basophils, and inasmuch as Russell 

 (1957j found them stainable by aldehyde- 

 fuchsin it is probable that they are blue 

 /?-cells and not 8-cells as Herlant supposed. 

 The blue /3-cells are therefore probably thy- 

 rotrophs. It should be noted that the stain- 

 ing reactions of the blue /?- cells are the 

 same as those of the thyrotrophs of the 

 pars anterior of the rat, dog, bat, cat, and 

 guinea pig. 



3. The y-Cell 



y-Cells are well developed and fully 

 functional in appearance in children and 

 maintain much the same appearance in 

 women up to the menopause. They do not 

 seem to be altered in appearance during 

 pregnancy (Herlant, 1958). They are quite 

 distinct from pregnancy cells which in the 

 latter half of pregnancy contain acidophil 

 granules. The number of y-cells does not 

 show any correlation with the duration of 

 the terminal illness (Ezrin, Swanson, Hum- 

 phrey, Dawson and Wilson, 1958). Her- 

 lant's observation that the y-cells are in- 

 active in aged subjects does not correlate 

 with any known change in hormone secre- 

 tion. It is possible that these cells secrete 

 corticotrophin but more investigation is 

 necessary. Crooke and Russell (1935) no- 

 ticed in Addison's disease a variable pro- 

 portion of very large "chromophobes." 

 Large chromophobes ("hypertrophic am- 

 phophils") have also been observed by 

 Mellgren (1945, 1948) in this disease. The 

 large chromophobes or hypertrophic am- 

 phophils of the above authors are presum- 

 ably the y-cells of Romeis (1940), or more 

 precisely the remains of the y-cells, inas- 

 much as these cells are susceptible to post- 

 mortem autolysis and are not well preserved 

 in autopsy material. Griesbach (private 

 communication) has observed a large num- 

 ber of large y-cells in the pars distalis of 

 a patient who had been adrenalectomized 

 for the treatment of a carcinoma some 

 weeks before death. 



E. THE AMPHOPHIL CELLS OF RUSSFIELD 



Russfield (1957) divides the cells of the 

 humaii pars distalis into acidophils, baso- 

 phils, amphophils, hypertrophic ampho- 



