Distribution of corticotrophin releasing factor activity within the hypothalamic-pituitary complex of rats and cattle.

An assay system involving cultured rat adenohypophysial cells from either intact or adrenalectomized donors was used to study the distribution of corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary complex of rats and cattle. In the rat hypothalamus, CRF activity was most concentrated in the median eminence, but CRF was present in the stalk and the posterior pituitary gland in much higher concentrations than in the median eminence in both species. The dose--response slopes for the median eminence, stalk and pars nervosa of the posterior pituitary gland were parallel to each other, suggesting a qualitative similarity between the CRF activity in these tissues. Rat posterior pituitary glands may also contain another CRF component which has a much flatter dose--response curve, but is detectable in smaller quantities of posterior pituitary tissue than is the other type of CRF.