The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
According to Daniels and Abma 2020; there are about 12 million women who use hormonal contraceptives pills in United States, including 6.4 million women who are taken estrogen and progesterone as a combination drug. It’s commonly known as pills in parlance
The primary work of oral contraceptive pills is to prevent ovulation, alter the uterine and fallopian tube condition which eventually prevent conception. They eventually interferes the roles of estrogen and progesterone during ovulation
Women who are on hormonal contraceptives pills tend to develop decrease in pituitary as well as hypothalamus volumes in the brain
The pituitary gland is a complex organ composed of anterior, intermediate and posterior lobes (Fletcher PA et al 2019). The pituitary gland functions in response to releasing factors from hypothalamus. The adenohypophysis constitute about 80% of the gland and houses specialized cells that synthesize and secrete several hormones including; growth hormone (GR), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PR) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). These hormones target various types of tissues to mediate physiological processes (Sheng JA et al 2020).
The adenohypophysis is characterized by well demarcated-acini which composed a mixture of different hormone producing cells. These cells can differentiate via eosin stains. There are about three distinct cell types seen based on these stains (Illahi S, et al 2022).
· Acidophils: The cytoplasm of these cells stains red or orange. Acidophils usually contain polypeptide hormones. Acidophilic cells are somatotrophs and lactotrophs
· Basophils: These cells have cytoplasm that stains a bluish or purple color. Basophilic cells contain glycoprotein hormones which are thyrotrophs, gonadotrophs and corticotrophs
· Chromopobe: These cells do not stain because they have very minimal or no hormonal contents (Illahi S,
This article will investigate the effects of oral contraceptive pills on chromaphobes and chromaphils cells of anterior pituitary gland.
Thirty (30) adult female wister rats aged 10-12 weeks weighting about 150-200kg were used for this research and they were acclimatized in their various cages for a period of two weeks before the experiment.
Age ranging from 10 to 12 weeks
Weight between 150 to 200kg
Pregnant female rat
Thirty (30) female wister rats were randomly assigned into three different groups, I, II and III. Each group had a total number of ten (10) animals. Group I received microglut levonorgestrel 30mg only at a dose of 0.18g/kg. Group II received a combination of microgynon levonorgestrel 150mg and ethinylestradiol 130mg at a dose of 0.18g/kg while group II serve as control group fed with vital feed and distilled water. The experiment last for 72 days.
At the end of the experiment, all the animals were sacrificed a day after the end of the last administration under chloroform anesthesia. Brain tissues were removed and preserved in a labeled container containing 10% of buffered formalin.
A buffered formalin bottled containing 10% solution was used and preserved the brain tissues of experimental wistar rats. Each bottle was labeled up and allowed to stand for 72 hours in order to ensure maximum penetration. After that, they were placed in ascending dehydration with ethanol solution. First 70% of ethanol solution was used for an hour then subsequent 95% solution and lastly alcohol solution for absolute dehydration. Tissue clearance took place in three (3) subsequent changes of xylene each lasting for 15 minutes. Tissue embedding with paraffin wax was carried out overnight to form blocks which were trimmed and sectioned at 5micro thickness using rotary microtome. Warm water at 28 degree Celsius bathed the tissue samples and dried up on an aluminum glass slides with heamotoxylin and eosin staining method which cleared up 95% of the xylene in alcohol and washed up in running tap water for 15 minutes. The differentiated section o turned blue after addition of 1% alcohol and eosin for 1 minute. The stained sections were viewed under a light microscope and photomicrographs of the stained tissues were taken.
This study was set out to investigate the effects of oral contraceptive pills on anterior pituitary gland of female wister rats using histological/microscopic extermination. The result showed that there is a significant differences between experimental and control group.
The first result showed the effect of progesterone only pills (POPs) that causes decrease in pituitary gland cells and these cells are responsibe for synthesis and secretion of several hormones that have many physiological actions in the body. The cells include: adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), prolactin (PR), gonadotropin releasing hormone, growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) etc. These hormones are highly essential in the body.
This result concise with one of the research which suggest that Oral contraceptives induced structural and functional changes to the brain causing decrease in grey matter volume and white matter integrity
There is also a research which says oral contraceptives display differences in brain functions at rest
The second result also showed the effects of combined contraceptive pills on anterior pituitary gland of female wister rats and this also induce decrease in pituitary cells greater than that of group one. This result also concise with that says women who are on hormonal contraceptives pills tend to develop decrease in pituitary as well as hypothalamus volumes in the brain
The results showed that the progestin only pills (POPs) alone had little impact on the histoarchitecture of the anterior pituitary gland while use of combined oral contraceptive causes severe damage to the histoarchitecture of the anterior pituitary gland.
We recommend that further researches should investigate more on the effects of hormonal contraceptive pills on anterior pituitary gland.
We acknowledge the effort of the department of histohaematology, Federal Medical Center Azare, Bauchi State. Nigeria, for their technical assistance toward this work. We also recommend A.A Ladan, Lele and Auwal for their support and countless advices.