IMAGE-ANALYSIS OF ARGYROPHIL NUCLEOLAR ORGANIZER REGIONS (AGNORS) IN ESTROGEN-INDUCED RAT ANTERIOR-PITUITARY HYPERPLASIA - COMPARISON OF AUTOMATIZED (LUCIA-M) AND NON-AUTOMATIZED EVALUATION

Argyrophil nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were morphometrically evaluated in rat anterior pituitaries of control and oestrogenized rat s using an automatized (LUCIA M - Laboratory Universal Computer Image Analysis Micro) and a non-automatized approaches to investigate not on ly the sensitivity and effectiveness of the automatized procedure but also the morphology of AgNORs in oestrogen-induced rat anterior pituit ary hyperplasia. In the experimental oestrogen-induced rat anterior pi tuitary hyperplasia, the image analysis system LUCIA M was compared to a non-automatized morphometric procedure and proved to be very effici ent and yielded analogical results. The AgNOR morphology in the oestro genized pituitaries was characterized by an increase of the total AgNO R area and clustering of AgNORs in the large nucleoli.