Hormone content and movement of neurosecretory granules in the rat neural lobe during and after dehydration.

Neurohypophyses from rats dehydrated and rehydrated for different periods of time have been analyzed by morphometry of electron micrographs and their oxytocin and vasopressin contents measured by radioimmunoassays. The time course of disappearance and reappearance of neurosecretory granules (NSG) parallels that of the hormone content of the neurohypophysis. Depletion of NSG during dehydration first occurs in the nerve endings and only later in the swellings. No change of the volumetric density of the microvesicles was detected but the time course of changes in the volumetric density of the endocytotic vacuoles varies according to the secretory state of the tissue. There was a significant increase in the volume of the gland 3 days after the beginning of the rehydration. This increase was associated with an increase in the volumetric density of the pituicytes. No change of the total number of endings, swellings and axons was observed. This demonstrates a hypertrophy of the pituicytes. The present work gives strong support to the concept of a preferential release of the granules located in the endings. It also shows that, after depletion of the NSG in the neural lobe, newly synthetized granules at the onset of rehydration move first to the endings and 2 days later arrive in the swellings coming presumably either directly from the hypothalamus or from the endings. Furthermore, the results confirm previous work which has demonstrated that membrane retrieval in neurohypophysial nerve endings occurs via vacuoles.