Marihuana and alcohol consumption affect adversely reproduction by inhibiting the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The endocannabinoid system, present in the central nervous system and in peripheral tissues, participates in the regulation of hormones involved in the reproductive physiology such as luteinizing hormone, prolactin and oxytocin. This system is activated in response to pathophys...

Liver sexual gene dimorphism, which depends mainly on specific patterns of GH secretion, may underlie differential susceptibility to some liver diseases. Because GH and prolactin secretion are regulated by dopaminergic pathways, we studied the participation of brain and lactotrope dopamine 2 receptors (D2Rs) on liver gene sexual dimorphism, to explore a link between the brain and liver gene exp...

Competition between adult males for limited resources such as food and receptive females is shaped by the male pattern of pituitary growth hormone (GH) secretion that determines body size and the production of urinary pheromones involved in male-to-male aggression. In the brain, dopamine (DA) provides incentive salience to stimuli that predict the availability of food and sexual partners. Altho...

During development of the mammalian pituitary gland specific hormone-producing cell types, critical in maintaining homeostasis, emerge in a spatially and temporally specific fashion from an ectodermal primordium. We have investigated the molecular basis of generating diverse pituitary cell phenotypes from a common precursor, providing in vivo and in vitro evidence that their development involve...

The Ames dwarf mouse transmits a recessive mutation (df) resulting in a profound anterior pituitary hypocellularity due to a general lack of thyrotropes, somatotropes and lactotropes. These cell types are also dependent on the pituitary-specific transcription factor, Pit-1. We present evidence that expression of Pit-1 and limited commitment to these cells lineages occurs in df/df pituitaries. T...

The anterior pituitary is made up of a number of cell types that are essential for such physiological processes as growth, development, homeostasis, metabolism, and reproduction. These include the hormonal cells corticotropes, thyrotropes, gonadotropes, somatotropes, lactotropes and a small population of mammosomatotropes, together with a non-hormonal cell type called the folliculo-stellate cel...

OBJECTIVE An increasing number of proteins appear to be involved in thyroid hormone feedback action at the level of the anterior pituitary, but the cell types expressing these proteins are largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to identify cell types in the human anterior pituitary that express type II and type III deiodinase (D2 and D3), the recently described thyroid hormone transp...

During pituitary development, the homeo domain protein GHF-1 is required for generation of somatotropes and lactotropes and for growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) gene expression. GHF-1 mRNA is detectable several days before the emergence of GH- or PRL-expressing cells, suggesting the existence of a somatotropic progenitor cell in which GHF-1 transcription is first activated. We have immor...