Morphologic effects of bromocriptine on spontaneously occurring pituitary prolactin-cell hyperplasia in old Long-Evans rats.

The effect of bromocriptine (BEC), a dopaminergic agonist, on nontumorous pituitary prolactin (PRL) cells of aging female Long-Evans rats, was studied histologically, immunocytologically, electron-microscopically, and morphometrically. Rats were arbitrarily divided into two control groups, one with normal (less than 20 ng/ml) and one with elevated serum PRL concentrations, and into four BEC-treated groups, all of which had increased serum PRL levels prior to commencement of BEC administration. In hyperprolactinemic control rats, compared with normoprolactinemic control rats, pituitary weight and percentage of pituitary PRL cells were increased. The morphologic features of PRL cells in these two groups did not differ markedly, which suggested that hyperprolactinemia was due to increased PRL-cell number and not increased PRL-cell function. Compared with age-matched hyperprolactinemic control rats, hyperprolactinemic rats treated with BEC showed a reversible decrease in serum PRL levels, pituitary weight as well as percentage of pituitary PRL cells, and by ultrastructural morphometry an increase in the volume density of lysosomes. BEC caused no striking changes in nuclear and cytoplasmic areas, volume densities of RER, Golgi regions, mitochondria, lipid droplets, and size and volume densities of forming and storage granules. Since spontaneously hyperplastic PRL cells show less conspicuous morphologic changes following BEC treatment than PRL cells rendered hyperplastic by estrogen administration or pituitary transplantation, it is suggested that PRL cells with no increased endocrine function respond less markedly to dopaminergic suppression than endocrinologically hyperactive PRL cells. It can be concluded that BEC suppresses spontaneous proliferation of PRL cells which occurs with aging.