Development of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive neurons in the human paraventricular and supraoptic nucleus.

Tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive (TH-IR) neurons were found in the developing human paraventricular and supraoptic nucleus. In the preterm infants only few, small, incompletely differentiated TH-IR neurons were evident in a minority of the cases. In the full-term infants a considerable but strongly variable population of morphologically mature TH-IR perikarya was observed in these neuroendocrine nuclei in most subjects.