[Recent progress in experimental pituitary tumors in various animals].

This article briefly describes the recent progress and opinion on experimental pituitary tumors in various animals. 1) A high incidence of spontaneous pituitary tumor is known in Sprague-Dawley and Wistar rats. 2) Recent studies suggest that the pituitaries of estrogen-treated animals are not tumoral and only hyperplastic. 3) Salmon calcitonin injection for 6 months caused a higher incidence of pituitary hyperplasia or non-functioning adenoma. 4) Mice transgenic by hGRF shows GH-producing hyperplasia or adenoma in the pituitary. 5) Introduction of choleratoxin transgene into mice caused gigantism. 6) Transgenic mice, that develop ACTH-producing pituitary tumor, were generated by PyLT. 7) Mice transgenic for vasopressin-SV 40 hybrid oncogene develop tumors of the endocrine pancreas and the pituitary (as a model of MEN type II).