Copper Hematoxylin,a Stain for the Acidophils of the Human Hypophysis

Cushing's 1 announcement that a pleuriglandular syndrome, designated by him as pituitary basophilism, was associated with basophilic tumors of the anterior lobe, attracted special attention to the basophils of the human hypophysis, including those that invade the posterior lobe. The latter variety, arising from the indifferent-staining cells of pars intermedia, 2 have been brought into prominence in connection with hypertension. 3

Similarity in morphology and staining properties of the basophilic cells of the anterior and those in the posterior lobe has been been advanced as evidence that the latter have migrated from the anterior lobe. Dayton 4 calls attention to the similarity in their behavior in various physiological and pathological conditions. Of those who have noted the great similarity in staining reaction, Kasche, 5 Biedermann 6 and Burgdorf 7 may be mentioned.

MacCallum, Futcher, Duff and Ellsworth, 8 in connection with a typical case of Cushing's syndrome with a tumor in the anterior lobe, decided that copper hematoxylin stained the basophils of the anterior lobe but not those in the posterior lobe. Since the tumor cells did not stain with this technique and had morphological features somewhat similar to the cells of pars intermedia, they concluded that the tumor probably arose from pars intermedia, which, of course, arouses new interest in this part of the hypophysis. At the recent meeting of the Association for the Study of Internal Secretion at Kansas City, Lisser reported a certain amount of recovery in a patient with Cushing's disease after partial removal of a hypophyseal adenoma. That the tissue removed at operation was from a pars intermedia neoplasm, was at least partly inferred from the staining reaction with copper hematoxylin and the assumption that this technique stained the basophils of the anterior lobe, but not those that arise from pars intermedia, as announced by MacCallum, et al. 8