Endocrinology, Vol 102, 1325-1338, Copyright © 1978 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

Can the pituitary secrete directly to the brain? (Affirmative anatomical evidence)

RM Bergland and RB Page

Vascular casts of 10 rhesus monkey pituitary glands and three vascular casts of the rhesus monkey cavernous sinus were examined by scanning electron microscopy. A continuous neurohypophyseal capillary bed was found uniting the infundibulum, infundibular stem, and infundibular process. The neurophypophysis was supplied by three groups of arteries: superior hypophyseal, middle hypophyseal, and inferior hypophyseal. Numerous anastomoses were found between individual arteries, and some hypophyseal arteries formed anastomotic links between different portions of the circle of Willis. Veins located at the caudal pole of the infundibular process, capillaries linking the infundibulum to the hypothalamus, and portal vessels extending from the infundibulum to the adenohypophysis provided efferent vascular pathways from the neurohypophysis. The adenohypophysis received no direct arterial supply; its entire afferent vascular supply was provided by portal vessels. Lateral hypophyseal veins were not found; small adenohypophyseal veins joined larger neurohypophyseal veins to form confluent pituitary veins which extended to the cavernous sinus. The capacity of the venous connections draining the adenohypophysis directly to the cavernous sinus appeared small when compared to that of of the long portal vessels supplying the adenohypophysis. However, many of the short portal vessels interposed between the adenohypophysis and the infundibular stem and process were well arranged to function as alternative efferent routes from the adenohypophysis. The limited potential for venous drainage directly to the cavernous sinus suggests that blood leaves the adenohypophysis by other routes; blood carried via long portal vessels from the infundibulum to the adenohypophysis may return to the neurohypophyseal capillary bed via short portal vessels. This anatomical study suggests that hypothalamic and adenohypophyseal secretions are conveyed to the capillary bed of the neurohypohysis. These secretions may leave the neurohypophysis via any of seven potential routes: one efferent route is directed to the adenohypophysis, another route is directed to the systemic circulation, but five of the potential efferent routes are directed toward the brain.

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