European Journal of Anatomy

Official Journal of The Spanish Society of Anatomy
Cover Volume 3 - Number 2
Eur J Anat, 3 (2): 111-114 (1999)

Tanycytes in the human median eminence contain intestinal trefoil factor (hITF)

Griepentrog T., Bauer M., Hornstein C., Sauer H., Jirikowski G.F.

Institut fur Anatomie/Anatomie II, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Teichgraben 7, D-07743 Jena, Germany

ABSTRACT Human intestinal trefoil factor (hITF) has been localized in hypothalamic neuroendocrine cells, the adenohypophysis and the choroid plexus, indicating that hITF may represent a novel neuropeptide involved in various neural functions. In the present study, employing combined immunocytochemistry for hITF and with immunofluorescence for glial acidic fibrillary protein GFAP, we observed that a fraction of tanycytes in the human median eminence contain hITF. It is likely that hITF is of importance for the dynamics of blood-brain barrier functions, which are known to modulate neurosecretion in the neurohypophysial and the adenohypophysial tract within the median eminence.

Keywords: intestinal trefoil factor, neuropeptide, adenohypophysis, article, cell interaction, choroid plexus, glia, human, human tissue, immunocytochemistry, median eminence, neurosecretory cell, protein localization, tanycyte

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)