Anatomy of Pituitary Gland

Cindy

 The pituitary gland (hypophysis) is suspended from the

floor of the hypothalamus by a stalk (infundibulum) and
housed in a depression of the sphenoid bone, the sella
turcica.
1.3 cm wide and roughly the size and shape of a kidney
bean; it grows about 50% larger in pregnancy.
composed of two structuresthe adenohypophysis and
neurohypophysiswith independent origins and separate
functions.
The adenohypophysis arises from a hypophyseal pouch
that grows upward from the embryonic pharynx
the neurohypophysis arises as a downgrowth of the brain,
the neurohypophyseal bud. They come to lie side by side
and are so closely joined that they look like a single gland.

 The adenohypophysis constitutes the anterior

three-quarters of the pituitary.
It has two parts: a large anterior lobe, also called
the pars distalis and a less important pars tuberalis
In the fetus, it also has a pars intermedia, a strip of
tissue between the anterior lobe and
neurohypophysis.
During subsequent development, however, most of
its cells mingle with those of the anterior lobe. All
that remains of the pars intermedia after birth is a
narrow, rudimentary zone with epithelial cystlike
pockets of little-known function.

 The anterior pituitary has no nervous connection to

the hypothalamus
linked to it by a complex of blood vessels called
thehypophyseal portal system.
This system consists of a network ofprimary
capillariesin the hypothalamus, a group of small
veins called portal venulesthat travel down the stalk,
and a complex ofsecondary capillariesin the anterior
pituitary.
The hypothalamus controls the anterior pituitary by
secreting hormones that enter the primary capillaries,
travel down the portal venules, and diffuse out of the
secondary capillaries into the pituitary tissue.

 The neurohypophysis constitutes the posterior

one-quarter of the pituitary.
It has three parts: the median eminence, an
extension of the floor of the brain; the
infundibulum mentioned earlier; and the
largest part, the posterior lobe (pars nervosa).
The neurohypophysis is actually nervous
tissue, not a true gland. Nerve fibers arise
from certain cell bodies in the hypothalamus,
pass down the stalk as a bundle called the
hypothalamohypophyseal tract, and end in
the posterior lobe.

 Hormones are made in the

hypothalamic neurons and move down
the nerve fibers by axoplasmic flow to
the posterior pituitary. Here they are
stored in the nerve endings until a
nerve signal coming down the same
axons triggers their release.