Pituitary gland Rathke's pouch. This contrasts with the posterior pituitary, which originates from neuroectoderm. Endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary are controlled by regulatory hormones released by parvocellular neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamic capillaries leading to infundibular blood vessels, which in turn lead to a second capillary bed in the anterior pituitary. This vascular relationship constitutes the hypothalamo-hypophyseal portal system. Diffusing out of the second capillary bed, the hypothalamic releasing hormones then bind to anterior pituitary endocrine cells, upregulating or downregulating their release of hormones. The anterior lobe of the pituitary can be divided into the pars tuberalis (pars glandularis) and pars
Pituitary adenoma showed that acromegaly cases with "AIP" mutations occurred about 20 years before acromegaly cases without "AIP" mutations and these tumors are large and relatively treatment resistant. Due to their young age at onset, "AIP" mutations are the most frequent genetic cause of pituitary gigantism (29% of cases). X-LAG is a rare syndrome of very early childhood onset pituitary tumors/hyperplasia that leads to growth hormone excess and severe overgrowth and pituitary gigantism. Three FIPA families with X-LAG have been reported to date all of which had transmission of a chromosome Xq26.3 duplication from affected mother to affected son . The disease