Anterior pituitary acidophil

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Phone:617-632-7753

In the anterior pituitary, the term “acidophil” is used to describe two different types of cells:

• somatotrophs, which generate somatotropin
• mammotrophs, which generate prolactin

When using standard staining techniques, they cannot be distinguished from each other (though they can be distinguished from basophils and chromophobes)^[1], and are therefore identified simply as “acidophils”.