Ultrastructure of the neurohypophysis

This review summarizes our current knowledge of the ultrastructure of the human neurohypophysis and includes comments on its anatomy, physiology, and embryology. The neurohypophysis represents a unique tissue having neural and endocrine characteristics and possessing ultrastructural features distinct from those of conventional endocrine organs such as the anterior pituitary, thyroid, pancreatic islets, etc. In contrast to these glands, the neurohypophysis is composed of the processes of mature neurons. As such, it is not capable of synthesizing hormones but only of their storage and release. Neurosecretion is one of the most exciting areas of neuroendocrinology and, although spectacular progress has been achieved in elucidating the process, a number of aspects are incompletely understood. Recent evidence indicates that the magnocellular nuclei of the hypothalamus, the anatomic origin and functional basis of the neurohypophysis, produce not only vasopressin and oxytocin, the so-called "neurohypophyseal hormones," but a number of other biologically active peptides as well. The physiologic function of these substances is largely unknown but they may be of profound importance in endocrine homeostasis. Based on these novel findings, the role of the neurohypophysis in endocrine regulation has to be re-evaluated.