Coronal sections through the mice anterior pituitary gland immunostained for SSTR2. (A) Coronal sections through the anterior pituitary of mouse 5, which was at a GH blood nadir at time of sacrifice, and mouse 11, which was at a GH blood apex at time of sacrifice. The sections are stained with antibody recognizing SSTR2 and with DAPI to reveal nuclei. Arrowheads point to predominantly intracellular staining in mouse 5 and cell surface staining in mouse 11. Scale bar represents 25 μm. (B) Average SSTR2 immunoreactive signal presented as ratio of plasma membrane to cytoplasmic signals from mice grouped depending on the GH status. Data were analyzed by Student's t test in GraphPad prism 5. Data are presented as least-square means ± SEMs with treatment effects significant at P < 0.05. ***, P ≤ 0.001. (C) Blood samples (2 µl) were collected from the tip of the tails at least 2 h before the sacrifice time at 15- to 20-min intervals. The level of GH in blood was measured using a sensitive sandwich ELISA.