Issn Print: 1051-2144
Publication Date: 2002/11/01
Classics in Endocrinology
Excerpt
This issue’s Classic is Monte Greer’s study of the effect of hypothalamic lesions on thyroid function in the rat (Greer MA. Evidence of hypothalamic control of the pituitary release of thyrotrophin. Proc Soc Exper Biol Med 1951;77:603). Although there had been clues in the 1940s that there was some sort of functional connection between the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland and that the hypothalamus might actually exert some control over pituitary function, especially with regard to reproduction and gonadal function, the pituitary’s control over thyroid function was seen as somewhat different. Pituitary stalk section experiments supported the idea, but one never knew whether the stalk section itself might affect the pituitary. Greer’s idea was to damage the hypothalamus directly in such a way that the pituitary remained intact. Then, any decrease in thyroid function after a hypothalamic lesion would not be because of pituitary damage but rather to the hypothalamic destruction itself. This early study did just that—and has been termed the benchmark paper on the topic (1).
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