Ultrastructural study of the prolactin and somatotroph cells in Chalcides chalcides

The introduction of immunocytochemistry practice has certainly furthered the comparative histological studies. This procedure has also simplified the study of the pituitary gland with a precise identification of the different cellular types and supplanting definitively the classic stains. However the study of the pituitary continues to have poor attention in reptiles compared to other classes of vertebrates. In order to develop our previous studies, in this paper we report the ultrastructural study of prolactin and somatotroph cells in the pituitary gland of the viviparous reptile Chalcides chalcides by immunogold technique. Although the somatotroph cells are larger than the prolactin cells, they are characterized by the presence of secretory granules of 180-220nm in diameter compared to the granules of the other cellular type with a diameter of 250-350nm. In both cell types the granular material is for the most homogenous and they are two distinctly different cell types in according with that we have just reported by the light microscopy.