Morphological aspects of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal system. VI. The tanycytes: their relation to the sexual differentiation of the hypothalamus. An enzyme-histochemical study.

Enzyme-histochemical methods were used to study the metabolic activity of specialized ependyma of the ventrolateral walls and floor of the third ventricle in young male and female rats during the "critical period" of sexual differentiation of the hypothalamus (one week after birth). Histochemical tests were conducted for glutamic dehydrogenase, lactic dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, glycerophosphate dehydrogenase and NADH2-dehydrogenase. Enzyme activity was judged by cytospectrophotometry. All the data were treated statistically. It was found that the specialized ependyma of the ventrolateral wall and floor of the third ventricle (median eminence) in rats differed in their enzyme behaviour in males and females during the "critical period" of sexual differentiation of the hypothalamus. At the level of the arcuate nucleus (alpha2-tanycytes) and the medial part of the median eminence (beta2-tanycytes) the ependyma was characterized by similar indices of metabolic activity in males and females in the decisive terms of the "critical period" (days 3, 5, and 7). On day 5 metabolic activity of these cells was reduced both in the males and in the females. Prominent sexual differences in the intensity of the enzyme reactions studied were noted in the ependyma of the lateral parts of the median eminence (beta1-tanycytes) in the "critical period". On day 5 metabolic activity of beta1-tanycytes was reduced in males and increased in females. It is suggested that these differences are caused by the receptor nature of beta1 tanycytes and suggest their implication in the mechanisms of sexual differentiation of hypothalamus.