Abstract
The effects of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and indomethacin (IDM) on the release of several pituitary hormones from the rat pituitary were investigated in vitro.
An addition of 2μg/ml of PGE1 to the medium elicited the release of growth hormone (GH) and prolactin, but not of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).Although the addition of 1μg/ml of IDM alone resulted in no effect on the basal release of these hormones, IDM diminished the release of ACTH induced by crude rat hypothalamic extracts (HE) or lysine-8-vasopressin (LVP), and LH induced by HE or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH).
These findings implicate that a part of PGE1 action might be a direct one on the pituitary gland and PGE1 might release GH and prolactin, whereas IDM might have a direct action on the pituitary gland, and that blunt the release of these pituitary hormones induced by several stimuli.
