Analysis of the pituitary-thyroid axis in bilaterally adrenalectomized or adrenal transplanted rats

The percentage, distribution, shape, intensity of staining and morphometrical parameters of the pituitary TSH immunoreactive cells and the histological features of the thyroid glands, were compared between adult rats with intact adrenals, without adrenals and biadrenalectomized animals with neonatal adrenal grafts. After the removal of the adrenal glands, TSH immunoreactive cells increased in percentage and exhibited a higher complexity of the cellular outline, than that of the intact animals. The nuclear, cytoplasmic and cell areas were significantly increased. However the bigger enhancement of the cytoplasmic area relative to the nuclear area, produced a decrease in the nuclear/cell area ratio. The thyroid glands showed some histological evidences of activation. After the transplantation of neonatal adrenal glands to adult rats, several adrenocortical nodules were present in the lumen of the small bowel segment. These adrenal masses induced a great decrease in the TSH cell area, which coupled with a smaller but significant variation of the nuclear area, led to an increase in the nuclear/cell area ratio relative to that observed in adrenalectomized animals. In addition, the distribution, shape and intensity of the immunoreactive material was similar to that observed in intact animals. In this experimental group, thyroid histology was observed to be similar to that of the intact animals.