Pituitary gland

The pituitary gland is known as the master gland.

Divisions:

• Anterior pituitary (aka adenohypophysis).
• Posterior pituitary (aka neurohypophysis, neural pituitary).

Function

Anterior part:

• Growth hormone (GH).
• Luteinizing hormone (LH)
• Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
• Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)
• Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
• Prolactin (PRL)

Mnemonic: "Go Look For The Adenoma Please" = GH, LH, FSH, TSH, ACTH, PRL.

Posterior part:

• Oxytocin.
• Antidiuretic hormone (ADH).

Anatomy and histology

Basic anatomy (simplified):

• Anterior:
  • Pars distalis.
  • Pars intermedia.
• Posterior:
  • Pars nervosa.

Embryological origin:

• Anterior - Rathke's pouch (roof of mouth).
• Posterior - diencephalon (ventral aspect).

Histology

Anterior - defined by cytoplasmic staining in H&E:

• Acidophils = red or orange.
  • GH, PRL.
• Basophils = basophilic (light blue).
  • TSH, LH, FSH.
• Chromophobes = no staining, not common (???).

Posterior:

• Less cellular.

See also

• Neuropathology.
• Brain tumours.

External links

• Neuropathology - neuropathologyweb.org.