Background. Pineal and adrenocortical cell morphology, dynamics, hormonal analysis and function in response to both natural and synthetic corticoids awaits in depth investigation in mammals.Aim. To investigate the pineal responsiveness to corticoid treatment from combined morphological and hormonal studies in postpubertal male mice.Material and methods. Three groups, each with 14 mice were used as control (C) or treated with the natural corticoid, hydrocortisone (HYC) at a dose of 4 mg/100 g.b.w. and synthetic corticoid, dexamethasone (DEX) at a dose of 4 mg/100 g.b.w. for ten consecutive days.Results. The treatment induced inverse changes in pineal-adrenocortical karyomorphology, cell proliferation (mitotic percentage M%) and hormonal milieu. Whereas both these corticoids caused pineal stimulation as evidenced from significantly increased nuclear diameter (μm) values (C 3.35 ± 0.05, HYC 4.77 ± 0.02, DEX 4.59 ± 0.04, p<0.001) and cell proliferation (M%) (C 1.11 ± 0.09, HYC 1.59 ± 0.07, DEX 1.44 ± 0.05, p<0.01), the changes induced in adrenocortical nuclear diameter in all the zones (p<0.001), cell proliferation (M%) (C 1.38 ± 0.05, HYC 0.53 ± 0.06, DEX 0.70 ± 0.05, p<0.001) and decreased content of adrenal corticosterone (C 0.24 ± 0.03, HYC 0.13 ± 0.01, p<0.001 DEX 0.15 ± 0.02, p<0.01) were those of adrenocortical inhibition.Conclusion. There exists an inverse relationship between the pineal and adrenocortical functions in post pubertal male mice (Mus musculus).
Hormone-induced reponsiveness of the pineal and adrenal glands was studied in post-pubertal male mice (Mus musculus). The influence of steroid hormones (estradiol and testosterone) and non-steroidal antihormones (tamoxifen and flutamide) on pineal and adrenal karyomorphology and cell proliferation activity was analyzed. Estradiol was injected at a dose of 5µg, testosterone 100µg, tamoxifen 500µg and flutamide 2mg per 100g body weight administered intramuscularly in all cases for ten consecutive days. Control mice were similarly injected with 0.3ml of peanut oil vehicle intramuscularly for the same duration. The results indicated that, except testosterone, all other treatments with estradiol, tamoxifen and flutamide caused significant hyperactivity in both the pineal and the adrenal glands, associated with significantly increased cell proliferation activity. On the contrary, testosterone administration was inhibitory to pineal -adrenal karyometric and mitotic incidence values. It was concluded that in male post-pubertal mice both pineal and adrenal glands show antagonistic response towards estradiol and testosterone administration. Although tamoxifen showed estrogen agonistic behaviour, flutamide conversely induced pineal and adrenal cytophysiological stimulation. Such stimulatory response was antagonistic to the inhibitory response shown by pineal and adrenal karyomorphology and cell proliferation following testosterone administration.
The relationship between pineal and adrenocortical cell morphology, dynamics and function awaits in depth investigation in mammals. In particular, any studies relating these two glands in response to potent adrenocorticoid inhibitor inducing changes in their functional and hormonal relationship appear to be absent. In our present study, we have attempted to investigate the pineal gland and adrenocortical responsiveness from combined morphological and associated hormonal studies. The present experiment utilized postpubertal male mice to study such an interrelationship. Our results reveal that metyrapone, a potent corticoid blocker, at a dose of 50 mg / 100 g body weight, for ten consecutive days induced significant stimulatory changes of the pineal cytomorphology, hypertrophy and hyperplasia, whereas, simultaneously there has been a suppression of adrenal cell morphology and function along with a decreased adrenal corticosterone content (control 0.24±0.08µg/g adrenal tissue vs. metyrapone 0.10±0.01 µg/g adrenal tissue). It may be surmised from the present investigation that corticoid inhibitor, metyrapone simultaneously causes inverse changes in pineal and adrenal function in postpubertal male mice.
Hemicastration has often been used to investigate the effect of in vivo modulation of gonadotrophin and steroids on peripheral endocrine organs. In the present study the effect of hemicastration was studied on pinealadrenal karyomorphology and percentage of cell proliferation activity and it was further examined whether such relationship was influenced through administration of steroid hormone and antihormones. In the present study the post pubertal male mice were hemicastrated and after thirty days of post hemicastration, the mice groups were administrated separately with steroid hormones estradiol at a dose of 5 µg/100 g b.w., testosterone of a dose of 100 µg/100 g b.w. and antihormones, tamoxifen at a dose of 500 µg/100 g b.w. and flutamide 2 mg/100 g b.w. daily for ten consecutive days. Our data revealed that both the pineal and adrenal gland nuclear size and cell proliferation were significantly increased in thirty days post hemicastrated male mice. It was further observed that the steroid hormones, estradiol and testosterone and antihormones administered for ten consecutive days significantly reversed the pineal adrenal hyperactivity and hyperplasia induced by hemicastration. Taken together our current experiments showed that both the pineal and adrenal glands stimulated following hemicastration can K O LK ATA
RESEARCH ARTICLEadversely respond to input of steroid hormones and antihormones showing reversal of hemicastration induced stimulation in these post pubertal male mice.
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