Endocrine cells of the adenohypophysis in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

It is known that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a severe infectious illness, which caused an epidemic in Asia in 2003. has extensive and complex effects on human organ systems It has been reported that the scrum levels of prolactin (PR L) follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). and luteinizing hormone (LH) of SARS patients are siginficantly higher than those of control groups. while estradiol (El). pregnancy hormone (P), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TS H) arc considerably lower than those of normal controls This phenomenon suggests that the adenohypophyseal endocrine cells in SARS patients may be damaged However. up to now there has been no direct histological in on the endocrine cells of patients' pituitary Here we investigated the endocrine cells in the adenohypophysis obtained from autopsies of 5 SARS patients The mimunolustochemistry and quantitative image results showed that compared with control cases, both the number of positive cells and the slanting intensity of immunoreactivity for growth hormone. TS H, and adrenocorticotrophic hormone in these cells were remarkably decreased. while that ol PRL. FSH. and LH were significantly increased in all SA RS cases studied These findings indicated that alterations occurred in the patients' adenohypophyscal endoerme cells, and these changes were consistent with the seruM levels of relevant endocrine hormones reported previously It appears that changes in these enclocime cells and their hormones arc affected by the severity of this new infectious disease