Morphological and functional caracterization of the sterilized or masculinized Oncorhynchus mykiss adenohypophysis, by 17 a-methyltestosterone

Abstract

Rainbow trouts, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were submitted to 6 different treatments with 17α-methyltestosterone, either by dilution in immersion baths and/or added to the diet during the early stages of development. During the reproductive season (winter), two years old animals were collected and their gonadal stage macroscopically analyzed in order to obtain the rates of occurrence of normal, sterilized and sex reverted specimens. ln this occasion, the pituitary gland was fixed for histochemical analysis and somatotropic (StH) and gonadotropic cells (GtH I and GtH II) counting were carried out. The pars distalis proximalis in the pituitaries of the sterile fishes showed chromophobes cells (presumably GtH I producer), while normal and sex reverted fishes, due to their being in final maturational stages, showed basophil cells (presumably GtH II producer) in larger quantities. The acidophil cells (presumably StH producer), also present in the pars distalis proximalis, occurred in greater numbers in the pituitaries of the sterile fishes when compared to their numbers in the other two groups (normal and sterile fishes).