[Immunocytochemical study of the ontogenesis of the CRF-containing neuroglandular system in the rat (author's transl)].

In the Rat, immunoreactive CRF-containing processes appear in the median eminence between the 18 and the 19th day of the fetal development. They seem to become functional as early as the 19th day since they establish neuro-hemal junctions with the capillaries of the Mantel Plexus. During the pre- and post-natal periods, the number of these fibers increases greatly in the median eminence where they extend in all parts of the zona externa, and in the pituitary stalk. At birth they display a biphasic evolution made up of a disappearance of the corticoliberin immunoreactivity followed by an accumulation accompanied by the appearance of a few immunoreactive perikarya in the paraventricular nucleus.