STUDIES ON THE MICRO -STRUCTURE OF PITUITARY GLAND AND ULTRASTRUCTURE OF ADENOHYPOPHSIS IN CHINEMYS REEVESII

Chinemys reevesii is an important cultivated aquatic animal in China. It has values for food and Chinese medicine. Inthe paper, it was used to study on the pituitary gland of Chinemys reevesii which was 3 -year -old female individual with weight be -tween 325g to 490g by microscope and transmission electron microscope. The results showed that thereweretwomajor portions ofthe pituitary gland, the handle -shaped neurohypophsis and the oval adenohypophsis. As the neurohypophsis was situated over thetail region of adenohypophsis, the pituitary gland of the turtle belonged to dorsoventral style. The nerve lobe of the neurohypoph -sis was not developed enough. The adenohypophsis was further divided into pars distalis( PD) and pars intermedia(PI). Therewere some characteristic vacuoles of sinusoid in pars intermedia. The pars distalis was composed of threemain kind of cells, ac- idophilia, basophil and chromophobe. Under transmission electron microscopy, the pars distalis of adenohypophysis mainly had 5secretory hormone cell types, including growth hormone ( GH) cell, prolactin (PRL) cell, thyrotropin (TSH) cell, adrenocort- icotrophic hormone (ACTH) cell, gonadotrophin ( GTH) cell and non -secretory type folliculo -satellite cell (FS). It was themostdifferent that Chinemys reevesii had big nucleus and less secretory granules in the growth homone cell from other animals. Thesewere possibly associated with the biological characters of slow growth and long -live life in Chinemys reevesii.