Secretion kinetics of prolactin and growth hormone by mouse anterior pituitaries in long term organ cultures.

Long-term organ cultures of mouse anterior pituitaries provides a system for generating an enriched starting material for the purification of prolactin and growth hormone. Culturing 1 anterior pituitary per ml in serum-free medium for 12 days resulted in a total yield of 40.9 micrograms and 6.6 micrograms of prolactin and growth hormone, respectively. This yield represented a 1886% and 18% net increase over the control prolactin and growth hormone content in the unincubated pituitaries. Secondly, culturing of 1-5 anterior pituitaries per ml did not result in a negative feedback autoregulation in the culture system.