Organ culture of the anterior pituitary in a synthetic medium. An immunocytochemical study.

Anterior pituitaries removed from human foetuses and rat neonates were maintained in organ culture after using three different media. A comparative immunocytological study of the different cell-types was made in the three media used. In the first medium containing foetal calf serum the different cell-types were present but their frequency in the cultured explants depended upon their representation in the tissue at the beginning of the culture. In the medium without any adjunction, the most characteristic feature was the shrinkage of the cultured tissue. In the third medium in which foetal calf serum was replaced by insulin the evolution of the explants was the same as in the first medium. All the cell-types were represented with a particular development of gonadotrophic cells. In conclusion it seemed that the third synthetic medium can be used in order to study anterior pituitary cells in vitro.