Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Feb;23(1):135-43.
doi: 10.1007/s10534-009-9274-8. Epub 2009 Nov 6.

Cadmium exposure modifies lactotrophs activity associated to genomic and morphological changes in rat pituitary anterior lobe

Ana María Calderoni  1 , Verónica Biaggio, Mariano Acosta, Liliana Oliveros, Fabian Mohamed, María Sofía Giménez
Affiliations

Cadmium exposure modifies lactotrophs activity associated to genomic and morphological changes in rat pituitary anterior lobe

Ana María Calderoni et al. Biometals. 2010 Feb.

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) is widely used in industrial applications and is an important contaminant of agricultural products. As an endocrine disruptor, Cd modifies the hormone release of pituitary anterior lobe (PAL). This work was undertaken to evaluate a possible association between phospholipase D (PLD) and prolactin mRNA expressions and the activity of lactotrophs and folliculostellate cells (FSC) in PAL of Cd exposed adult male Wistar rats (Cd, 0.133 mM per liter for 2 months). The PALs were submitted to immunohistochemical and morphometric analysis to determine the percentage of lactotrophs (PRL-ir) and FSC (S-100-ir). Cultured PAL cells were stained with Hoechst 33258 to determine the presence of alterations in nuclear morphology consistent with apoptosis. The expressions of PLD and prolactin mRNA were assessed by RT-PCR. Cd treated rats showed a decrease of PLD mRNA levels that can be associated to both high number of apoptotic cells and increase of S-100 protein expression in FSC. Cd decreased prolactin mRNA expression, number of lactotrophs and percentage of PRL-ir suggesting a low availability of prolactin to be secreted from PAL. Cd modifies the lactotrophs activity of pituitary gland through biochemical, genomic and morphological changes and contributes directly or indirectly to the levels of serum prolactin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources