Changes with age in the number and size of anterior pituitary cells in female mice from suckling to adulthood.

Changes with age in the number and size of anterior pituitary cells in female mice were calculated during their postnatal development by using a stereological morphometric study with electron microscopy. The number of parenchymal cells increased in mice from 20 to 30 days of age, and did not change around puberty, after which the number increased to the adult level. The number of somatotrophs increased with age in almost the same manner as the parenchymal cells. The number of lactotrophs increased with age and were significantly different each time they were measured. The number of non-granulated cells did not increase in mice from 20 days of age to adulthood; at 20 days of age, the number was at the same level as in the adult mice. The other types of cells increased by only a small number. The sizes of all types of cells increased during postnatal life. Somatotrophs and lactotrophs became the same size as in adults by the onset of puberty. Non-granulated cells and other types of cells reached adult size at 5 days after puberty. Lactotrophs and somatotrophs had adult ultrastructural features on the day of puberty. Sizes and ultrastructural features of anterior pituitary cells reached adult levels on the day of puberty, but their numbers were still fewer than in adult mice. The increase in the volume of the anterior pituitary with age arose mostly from an increase in the number and the size of somatotrophs and lactotrophs before puberty, increases in the size of somatotrophs and the number of lactotrophs around puberty, and an increase in the number of both types of cells after puberty.