Relationship between the preoptico hypophysial system and the vascular system in the teleost Rita rita (Ham.)

Tetrapod-like hypothalamo-hypophysial portal system in the teleost Megalops cyprinoides (Broussonet)

A tetrapod-like hypothalamo-hypophysial portal system and a persistent bucco-hypophysial canal are present in Megalops cyprinoides. The complicated loops of the primary capillary plexus are seen on the ventral side of the infundibular floor and contact the perikarya of the nucleus lateralis tuberis and the preoptico-hypothalamo-neurohypophysial-neurosecretory tract. Although the pars intermedia receives part of its vascular supply from the pars distalis, the caudal hypophysial artery directly vascularizes the neurointermedia interface and forms the plexus intermedialis. The bucco-hypophysial canal is short and narrow in the fry and fingerlings but becomes long and tortuous as the fish grows. Megapopidae seem to be closer to the polypteriformids than to the teleosts. The possession of the pituitary portal system in megalopids may be a connecting link between the polypteriformids and other advanced teleosts.

Distribution of monoamine oxidase (MAO) in relation to the hypothalamo-hypophyseal system of the teleost Clarias batrachus (L.)

Varying degrees of monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity were noticed all along the hypothalamo-hypophyseal neurosecretory tract in C. batrachus. Intense activity was evident on the wall of the secretory cells of the adenohypophysis, neurons of the nucleus preopticus (NPO) and nucleus lateralis tuberis (NLT). However, MAO activity was also observed in the cytoplasm of some neurons in the ventromedian region of the NLT and groups of cells present in the neurohypophyseal ramifications of the pars intermedia. A strong accumulation of formazan granules in the median eminence (ME) and the neuroadeno interface lends further support to the view that C. batrachus has a ME of both the tetrapodan and the teleostean type. The distributional pattern of MAO in the hypothalamus and hypophysis suggests that monoaminergic fibres are probably involved in the secretory mechanism of the releasing factors and pituitary hormones.