Morphological and histological studies on the pituitary gland of Liza carinata from the Suez Bay (Red Sea, Egypt), with special reference to the gonadotrophs

Abstract

The teleosts pituitary gland has a peculiar structure that shows wide variability of its morphology and cellular organization. Moreover, the pituitary gland usually displays seasonal changes during the reproductive cycle. So, the present study is designed to identify and localize the different cell types of the pituitary gland of mature male and female of Liza carinata from the Suez Bay and to study the possible variations that found during its reproductive cycle. The result revealed that the pituitary gland of L. carinata is of the platybasic type, which lacks a distinct hypophyseal stalk, and is differentiated into two main divisions, namely: the adenohypophysis and neurohypophysis. The glandular adenohypophysis consists of five main cell types, the lactotrophs, somatotrophs, gonadotrophs, thyrotrophs and melanotrophs. On the other hand, the neurohypophysis is formed of nerve fibres and contains a variable amount of neurosecretory granules. Moreover, the principal seasonal variations take place in the meso-adenohypophyseal gonadotrophs and the neurosecretory granules.