Pituitary gland protective bony enclosure called the sella turcica. It is composed of three lobes: anterior, intermediate, and posterior. In many animals, these three lobes are distinct.The intermediate is avascular and almost absent in human beings. The intermediate lobe is present in many lower animal species, in particular in rodents, mice and rats, that have been used extensively to study pituitary development and function. In all animals, the fleshy, glandular anterior pituitary is distinct from the neural composition of the posterior pituitary, which is an extension of the hypothalamus. The anterior pituitary arises from an invagination of the oral ectoderm and forms
Pituitary-specific positive transcription factor 1 for high affinity DNA binding on genes encoding growth hormone (GH; MIM 139250) and prolactin (PRL; MIM 176760). PIT1 is also important for regulation of the genes encoding prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone beta subunit (TSHB; MIM 188540) by thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH; MIM 257120) and cyclic AMP.[supplied by OMIM] Pituitary-specific positive transcription factor 1 has been shown to interact with GATA2 and PITX1. Pituitary-specific positive transcription factor 1 POU domain, class 1, transcription factor 1 (Pit1, growth hormone factor 1), also known as POU1F1, is a transcription factor for growth hormone. PIT1 is a pituitary-specific transcription factor responsible for pituitary development