Morphological feedback effect on the nucleoli of the neurons in the nucleus arcuatus (infundibularis) to hypophyseal hypogonadism in juvenile haemochromatosis.

Case report of a man of 22 with juvenile haemochromatosis and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. There is evidence of siderosis of the basophil cells of the hypophysis, atrophy of the testicles with disappearance of leydig cells and alterations in the nucleoli of the neurones with enlargement, vacuolation and multiplication limited to the nucleus arcuatus tuberis. The nucleolar changes in this hypothalamic centre are interpreted as a feedback effect. They are comparable to matching alterations in the hypertrophy of the nucleus subventricularis (Sheehan and Kovács 1966) in post-partum hypopituitarism.