Pituitary and cerebellum of nude mice

The anterior pituitary of athymic homozygous "nude" (nu nu) mice shows signs of reduced activity of the acidophilic cells, nuclear volumes of which lag significantly behind normal values. Also there is a significant deficiency in the number of basophilic cells. A similar deficiency is found in the numbers of Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, which in addition also show a reduction in size, as part of an overall reduction of cerebellum size.