Cellular in vivo imaging reveals coordinated regulation of pituitary microcirculation and GH cell network function.

ABSTRACT: Growth hormone (GH) exerts its actions via coordinated pulsatile secretion from a GH cell network into the bloodstream. Practically nothing is known about how the network receives its inputs in vivo and releases hormones into pituitary capillaries to shape GH pulses. Here we have developed in vivo approaches to measure local blood flow, oxygen partial pressure, and cell activity at single-cell resolution in mouse pituitary glands in situ. When secretagogue (GHRH) distribution was modeled with fluorescent markers injected into either the bloodstream or the nearby intercapillary space, a restricted distribution gradient evolved within the pituitary parenchyma. Injection of GHRH led to stimulation of both GH cell network activities and GH secretion, which was temporally associated with increa

SUBMITTER: Lafont C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2840083 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature