From pituitary stem cell differentiation to regenerative medicine

CAMILLETTI, MARIA ANDREA; MARTINEZ MAYER, JULIAN ; VISHNOPOLSKA, SEBASTIAN; PEREZ-MILLÁN, MARIA INES

Frontiers in Endocrinology

Frontiers

Lugar: Lausanne; Año: 2020

1664-2392

The anterior pituitary gland is comprised of specialized cell-types that produce and secrete polypeptide hormones in response tohypothalamic input and feedback from target organs. These specialized cells arise during embryonic development, from stem cellsthat express SOX2 and the pituitary transcription factor PROP1, which is necessary to establish the stem cell pool and promote anepithelial to mesenchymal-like transition, releasing progenitors from the niche. Human and mouse embryonic stem cells candifferentiate into all major hormone-producing cell types of the anterior lobe in a highly plastic and dynamic manner. Morerecently human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) emerged as a viable alternative due to their plasticity and high proliferativecapacity. This mini-review gives an overview of the major advances that have been achieved to develop protocols to generatepituitary hormone-producing cell types from stem cells and how these mechanisms are regulated. We also discuss their applicationin pituitary diseases, such as pituitary hormone deficiencies