Apoptosis in pituitary pars distalis of male viscachas: quantitative analysis during the reproductive cycle.

ROSALES GABRIELA; MARIQUEO BETSABE; FILIPPA VERÓNICA; MOHAMED FABIAN

San Luis Capital

Congreso; XXXVII Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo.; 2019

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a genetically controlled cell process whereby cells induce their own death in response to certain stimuli. The balance between this process and cell proliferation is key to maintaining tissue homeostasis in the pituitary gland during physiological endocrine events. A series of cysteine-dependent proteases, called caspases, participate in the intracellular mechanisms involved in apoptosis. The aim of this work was to localize and quantify apoptotic cells that express cleaved caspase 3 (CASP3) in different regions of pituitary pars distalis (PD) of adult male viscachas during their annual reproductive cycle (reproductive, gonadal regression and gonadal recovery periods). In each period, four pituitary glands were collected and processed for light microscopy. CASP3 was detected by immunohistochemistry and morphometrically quantified by image analysis. The immunoreactive (-ir) cells were counted and expressed as a percentage of the total number of cells per microscopic field. The values were statistically analyzed and expressed as mean ± SEM. The immunostaining pattern was mainly cytoplasmic, although nuclear labeling was also observed. Abundant CASP3-ir cells were located around blood vessels. The total percentage of these cells did not differ significantly among the three periods studied (P>0.05). However, there were significant differences in CASP3-ir cells between different PD zones during the reproductive cycle. In the reproductive period, numerous CASP3-ir cells were mainly located at the rostral end, in the ventral and dorsal regions (P