The Absence of Somatotroph Proliferation During Continuous Stress is a Result of the Lack of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2 Activation

The integrity of homeostasis can be affected by chronic stress, and hyposomatotropism is evident in chronic stress‐associated illnesses. In the present study, we demonstrated that a continuous stress (CS) severely affected somatotrophs among hormone‐secreting cells in the anterior lobe (AL) of the pituitary by using a rat CS model. Among AL cells, the proliferation of somatotrophs was almost entirely suppressed in rats that had 3–5 days of CS (5dCS), although other hormone‐secreting cells continued to proliferate. The cell size of somatotrophs was reduced at 5dCS (P