An "in vitro" model for combined functional and morphological investigations on the rat pituitary gland

We have developed an alternative model for combined "in vitro" functional and morphological studies on the rat pituitary gland. To test its use for biochemical investigations we studied some aspects of the secretion in pituitary thyrotrophs under basal conditions and after stimulation with TRH. After stabilisation of basal TSH release, the stimulation with TRH significantly increased the TSH secretion. To test the usefulness of our model for morphological investigations the tissue was processed for conventional and immunocytochemical light and electron microscopy at the end of the incubation. Different types of pituitary cell resulted to be well preserved. Our model allows combined biochemical and morphological studies on the pituitary gland and thus reduces the number of animal groups, eliminates the extrapolation of results from different groups and replaces the "in vivo" by an "in vitro" experiment.