ESPE Abstracts

In the early 2000’s, our lab began its efforts to characterize the large-scale functional organization of endocrine cell types within the mammalian pituitary gland. These studies were driven by a long-standing paradox of pituitary function: endocrine cell populations are capable of mounting massive hormone pulses in vivo (e.g. a 1,000-fold increase in GH levels in young mature males), while the same cells isolated from their tissue context respond weakly...

Background: Several lines of evidence suggest that the adult pituitary contains a population of tissue-specific stem cells capable of differentiating into hormone-producing cells. Previously, we have shown that Sox2+ve cells are able to self-renew and differentiate in vitro, suggesting that this population of undifferentiated cells may contain stem cells in vivo. When targeted with oncogenic mutations adult stem cells can become cancer stem cells, able to self-renew and give r...

Background: Pituitary gland development is a well conserved process that starts with formation of Rathke’s pouch and specification of the primitive intermediate and anterior pituitary tissues. This early developmental sequence is conserved in humans compared to other mammals despite the fact that the human intermediate pituitary regresses during early gestation.Objective and hypotheses: We have identified the transcription factor Pax7 as key regulat...