[The morphological state of the adenohypophyseal somatotrophs during body development under conditions of protein-energy insufficiency].

The quantitative morphometric analysis of the somatotrophs of adenohypophysis of the mice developing in prenatal and early postnatal ontogenesis at the protein energetic insufficiency (PEI) was conducted at the light and electron-microscopic levels. The PEI was produced by feeding the female mice starting from the 1st day of their pregnancy with the diet containing half as many, as compared to control, nutrients (5% of protein included) at the cost of incorporating the cellulose. Adenohypophyses of 20-day old badly nourished experimental mice had a changed relationship among the types of cells: the proportion of chromatophobic cells was 39% which was significantly higher than control values (25%). The decrease in the portion of differentiated cells has occurred in the main at the expense of somatotrophs: their portion was 49% (in control--61%). The volume of cytoplasm of somatotrophs in the hypophyses of test animals is less than control value by 30%. Quantitative electron-microscopic analysis demonstrated that volumetric fractions of somatotrophs cytoplasm occupied by the endoplasmatic reticulum, Golgi complex, mitochondria, lysosomes in the malnutrition test do not significantly differ from the appropriate control values. Under protein insufficiency, a decrease of the medium diameter of the secretory granules (by 1.9 times as compared to control) and their content (by 1.7 times) in the somatotrophs has been noted. Thus in the adenohypophysis of mice developed under conditions of prenatal and early postnatal protein insufficiency there prevails the type of somatotrophs with the small volume of cytoplasm and small-sized secretory granules. This type of somatotrophs is classified with the actively functioning cells.