In-vitro secretion of prolactin and growth hormone in the presence of melatonin by pituitary gland from mink kept under long or short days.

Mink anterior pituitaries were incubated in Medium 199 for up to 9 or 13 days. Biological activity of prolactin and GH was determined. Daily concentrations of prolactin and GH in the incubation medium were also measured by radioimmunoassay and radioreceptor assay. When females were kept under short days for several weeks before the experiment, a significant decrease in prolactin secretion by the anterior pituitary was observed as compared with that in females maintained under long days. In contrast, secretion of GH was not modified by the photoperiodic history of the animals. Pineal gland denervation by ablation of the superior cervical ganglia a few months before the experiment, or addition of melatonin to the incubation medium of anterior pituitaries from intact or ganglionectomized females, did not modify the secretion of prolactin and GH. The pituitary gland does not therefore seem to be a direct target site for melatonin in transducing the duration of daylength on the hypothalamo-pituitary axis.