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)