Eur J Anat, 1 (2): 89-95 (1997)

Hyperactivity and proliferation of prolactin cells induced in vitro by met-enkephalin

J. Carretero, M. Rubio, F. Sánchez, M.J. Estévez, M. Santos, G. Vázquez, E. Blanco and R. Vázquez

Departamento de Anatomía e Histología Humanas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Salamanca. Spain

ABSTRACT In order to determine whether or not met­ enkephalin is able to modulate the in vitro activity and proliferation rate of rat prolactin cells, pituitary monolayer cultures from male rats were treated with 1O-6M met -enkephalin and an immunocytochemical and morphometric study was carried out. The opio id induced significant increases in cellular and nuclear areas (p<0.05) with respect to control dishes. The proliferation rate was determined as the labelling index for peNA by double immunocytochemistry for peNA and prolactin; met-enkephalin induced a significant increase in total PCNA-expressing cells (p<0.05), the numerical density of prolactin immunoreactive cells (p<0.05)and the prolifera­tion rate of prolactin cells (p

Keywords: Rat pituitary, prolactin, met­enkephalin, cellular proliferation.

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)