Ultra structure differentiation of the anterior pituitary cells of the adult female non pregnant carnivore Vulpes zerda Atteyat Selim, Eman El Nahass * Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt Received 18 October 2015; revised 24 March 2016; accepted 11 December 2016 Available online 11 January 2017 KEYWORDS Pituitary cells; Insectivorous bats; Electron microscope Abstract The pituitary gland of carnivore mammals in the world was described, but that of those in Egypt may be low, so the present study is carried out on some carnivore mammals such as Vulpes zerda, to elucidate the similarities and the differences of the pituitary cells between the mammals in the world and those in Egypt. The results indicate that, the gland is pyramidal in shape. The aci- dophilic cells and the basophilic cells are distributed heterogeneously in the body of the gland. The STH cells are numerous, the nucleus is irregular, lobed and eccentric with the endoplasmic reticulum. The secretory granules are light with a large size. The LTH cells have eccentric nucleus near the plasma membrane, the mitochondrium is spherical or elongated, the endoplasmic reticu- lum is rough and the granules are collected at the cell periphery. The ACTH cells are found singly, irregular with eccentric nucleus. Its secretory granules are small and spherical shaped, while the TSH cells have very small secretory granules, but the FSH and LH cells are found singly, angular shape with eccentric nuclei and the its secretary granules are spherical or ovoid shaped and exhibit variation in electron density than STH cells. The differences in shape and distribution may be related to the phylogeny. Ó 2016 The Egyptian German Society for Zoology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Introduction The differences in the pituitary size reflect differences in the species body size rather than the cyclical reproduction (O’Brien, 1996). The pituitary gland of Splax ehrenbergi was irregular shape but in Arvicanthis niloticus it was oval, and the pars nervous lies between the pars distalis. The residual lumen is poorly developed (Madkour et al., 2002). The pituitary gland in V. zerda was pyramidal in shape with an apex dorsally directed and its base was cleft and ventrally directed while in Oryctolagus cuniculus, the gland was triangu- lar but with a slightly long apex posteriorly directed and a smooth base interiorly directed (El-Desouki and Selim, 1996). In Hemiechinus auritus and Acomys russatus harrisoni, there was no residual lumen and the LTH cells were larger sized in Hemiechinus than in Acomys, (Selim, 1996), but in Gerbillus gerbillus pyramidum, the gland was pyramidal in shape and * Corresponding author. Peer review under responsibility of The Egyptian German Society for Zoology. The Journal of Basic & Applied Zoology (2016) 75, 61–67 HOSTED BY The Egyptian German Society for Zoology The Journal of Basic & Applied Zoology www.egsz.org www.sciencedirect.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jobaz.2016.12.003 2090-9896 Ó 2016 The Egyptian German Society for Zoology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).