Pituitary Gland - 40X
 
The anterior (a) and posterior (p) pituitary glands look very different from each other, so identifying them should not be too difficult. There are more cells in the anterior pituitary, so it usually stains darker.







Pituitary Gland - 100X
 
While the anterior pituitary (a) is made up almost entirely of cells, the posterior pituitary (p) contains few cells and a lot of nerve cell processes--the axons of hypothalamic neurons. Supporting cells called pituicytes make up about one fourth or 25% of the volume of the posterior pituitary.




Pituitary Gland, anterior - 400X
 
If you can't see the anterior and posterior pituitary glands next to each other on a slide, they both become much harder to identify. The anterior pituitary can be confused with the pancreas or parotid glands, or even the liver. If you look closely, you can see that the cells are arranged in clusters. Some of the cells have more granules in their cytoplasm than others and look darker.


Pituitary Gland, posterior - 400X
 
Some of the dark spots in this image are the nuclei of pituicytes (supporting cells). Some of the spots are caused by stored granules containing hormones in the axon terminals of the hypothalamic neurons that produce the hormones.







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