Effects of bromocriptine on [3H]estradiol binding in cytosol of anterior pituitary

The hypothalamus may control hormone receptors in the anterior pituitary either by a direct trophic effect or indirectly by regulation of serum pituitary hormone levels. Rats whose medial basal hypothalamus had been destroyed in order to suppress neural control of the gland showed a reduction in [3H]estradiol binding in the anterior pituitary and high serum PRL levels; both changes were reversed by treatment of the lesioned rats with daily injections of bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist. In nonlesioned animals, the same treatment did not modify significantly those parameters. In another hyperprolactinemic model (rats with anterior pituitaries transplanted under the kidney capsule), [3H]estradiol binding by the in situ pituitaries of the host rats was similar to that in the nongrafted controls. These results suggest that changes due to median eminence lesion are reversible and that bromocriptine is able to act as a substitutive therapy which restores binding of estradiol in glands whose receptors have been decreased by the effect of the lesion. High PRL levels due to pituitary transplant do not account for the observed changes in the pituitary estradiol binding.