Pituitary Dwarfism & Acromegaly

Dog showing symptoms of pituitary dwarfism.

Two rather complicated sounding names.. right? Well, let me break it down for you :). 

Pituitary dwarfism-> Also known as panhypopituitary. The pituitary gland is a gland responsible for secretion of many important hormones and is split into the anterior and posterior pituitary. This affects the anterior pituitary. 

The anterior pituitary has two cell types- acidophils and basophils. The acidophils are the main presentation of the two disease syndromes. The acidophils secrete growth hormone and prolactin. 

Pituitary dwarfism is a deficiency in growth hormone (also known as somatotropin). This results in the retention of the puppy hair, delayed tooth change and retarded growth. This is due to the embryological failure to differentiate of the pituitary. 

Acromegaly- an excessive amount of growth hormone. This is generally due to an acidophil adenoma. An adenoma is a benign cancerous growth of the cells which normally secrete this hormone- which also secretes the hormone. This overgrowth of cells results in an increase in the number of ossification centres in the long bones, a mutation in the FGFR3 receptors and an elongation and thinning of long bones (long bones e.g. femur in the leg, flat bones include the skull).