Abstract
The pituitary gland serves an important function in the regulation of growth, metabolism, and reproduction; in states of dysfunction, in particular, in states of hypofunction, clinical symptoms may cause tremendous effects on patient health and quality of life. Traditional treatments for hypopituitarism are pharmacological and require life-long dosing of multiple medications to maintain physiologic homeostasis. Although pharmaceuticals allow for repletion of pituitary hormones, they offer symptomatic relief rather than a cure for the disease. As the fields of immunobiology, regenerative medicine, transplantation, and stem cell research grow in the twenty-first century, the hope is that hypopituitarism may 1 day be cured through transplantation of pituitary stem cells, which may proliferate and differentiate to form functional pituitary tissue, rather than mitigated through synthetic hormones. Here, we present an overview of the various functions of the pituitary gland, the symptoms and treatments for hypopituitarism, the role of pituitary stem cells in restoring endogenous pituitary function, and a look at the past, present, and future of pituitary transplantation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Altman J. Autoradiographic study of degenerative and regenerative proliferation of neuroglia cells with tritiated thymidine. Exp Neurol. 1962;5:302–18.
Armitage WJ, Tullo AB, Larkin DF. The first successful full-thickness corneal transplant: a commentary on Eduard Zirm’s landmark paper of 1906. Br J Ophthalmol. 2006;90:1222–3.
Atala A, Bauer SB, Soker S, et al. Tissue-engineered autologous bladders for patients needing cystoplasty. Lancet. 2006;367:1241–6.
Billingham RE, Brent L. A simple method for inducing tolerance of skin homografts in mice. Transplant Bull. 1957;4:67–71.
Billingham RE, Brent L, Medawar PB. Actively acquired tolerance of foreign cells. Nature. 1953;172:603–6.
Billingham RE, Krohn PL, Medawar PB. Effect of cortisone on survival of skin homografts in rabbits. Br Med J. 1951;1:1157–63.
Billingham RE, Krohn PL, Medawar PB. Effect of locally applied cortisone acetate on survival of skin homografts in rabbits. Br Med J. 1951;2:1049–53.
Bliss M. Harvey Cushing: a life in surgery. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005.
Calne RY. Inhibition of the rejection of renal homografts in dogs by purine analogues. Transplant Bull. 1961;28:65–81.
Carbajo-Perez E, Watanabe YG. Cellular proliferation in the anterior pituitary of the rat during the postnatal period. Cell Tissue Res. 1990;261:333–8.
Chen J, Hersmus N, Van Duppen V, et al. The adult pituitary contains a cell population displaying stem/progenitor cell and early embryonic characteristics. Endocrinology. 2005;146:3985–98.
Crowe SJ, Cushing H, Homans J. Effects of hypophyseal transplantation following total hypophysectomy in the canine. Q J Exp Physiol. 1909;2:389–400.
Cushing H. The pituitary body and its disorders, clinical states produced by disorders of the hypophysis cerebri. Philadelphia/London: J.B. Lippincott Company; 1912.
de Almeida JP, Sherman JH, Salvatori R, et al. Pituitary stem cells: review of the literature and current understanding. Neurosurgery. 2010;67(3):770–80.
Dempster WJ, Lennox B, Boag JW. Prolongation of survival of skin homotransplants in the rabbit by irradiation of the host. Br J Exp Pathol. 1950;31:670–9.
Fauquier T, Rizzoti K, Dattani M, et al. SOX2-expressing progenitor cells generate all of the major cell types in the adult mouse pituitary gland. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008;105:2907–12.
Gibson T, Medawar PB. The fate of skin homografts in man. J Anat. 1943;77:299–310.4.
Gleiberman AS, Michurina T, Encinas JM, et al. Genetic approaches identify adult pituitary stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008;105:6332–7.
Goodell MA, Brose K, Paradis G, et al. Isolation and functional properties of murine hematopoietic stem cells that are replicating in vivo. J Exp Med. 1996;183:1797–806.
Halsted W. Auto- and isotransplantation, in dogs, of parathyroid glandules. J Exp Med. 1909;11:175.
Harrison R. The outgrowth of the nerve fiber as a mode of protoplasmic movement. J Exp Zool. 1907;9:787–846.
Horvath E, Kovacs K. Folliculo-stellate cells of the human pituitary: a type of adult stem cell? Ultrastruct Pathol. 2002;26:219–28.
Kleinberg D. Endocrinology of mammary development, lactation and galactorrhea. In: DeGroot L, Jameson J, editors. Endocrinology. 4th ed. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 2000. p. 2464–75.
Kocher T. Nobel Prize Speech. Concerning pathoÂlogical manifestations in low-Grade thyroid disease. Reprinted in: Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967. pp 330–383
Krylyshkina O, Chen J, Mebis L, et al. Nestin-immunoreactive cells in rat pituitary are neither hormonal nor typical folliculo-stellate cells. Endocrinology. 2005;146:2376–87.
Lepore DA, Roeszler K, Wagner J, et al. Identification and enrichment of colony-forming cells from the adult murine pituitary. Exp Cell Res. 2005;308:166–76.
Levy A. Stem cells, hormones and pituitary adenomas. J Neuroendocrinol. 2008;20:139–40.
Medawar PB. The behaviour and fate of skin autografts and skin homografts in rabbits: a report to the War Wounds Committee of the Medical Research Council. J Anat. 1944;78:176–99.
Mogi C, Miyai S, Nishimura Y, et al. Differentiation of skeletal muscle from pituitary folliculo-stellate cells and endocrine progenitor cells. Exp Cell Res. 2004;292:288–94.
Morgan JA. The influence for cortisone on the survival of homografts of skin in the rabbit. Surgery. 1951;30:506–15.
Murray JE, Merrill JP, Harrison JH, et al. Prolonged survival of human-kidney homografts by immunosuppressive drug therapy. N Engl J Med. 1963;268:1315–23.
Otsuka Y, Ishikawa H, Omoto T, et al. Effect of CRF on the morphological and functional differentiation of the cultured chromophobes isolated from rat anterior pituitaries. Endocrinol Jpn. 1971;18:133–53.
Pendleton C, Zaidi HA, Pradilla G, et al. Harvey Cushing’s attempt at the first human pituitary transplantation. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2010;6:48–52.
Quinones-Hinojosa A, Chaichana K. The human subventricular zone: a source of new cells and a potential source of brain tumors. Exp Neurol. 2007;205:313–24.
Quinones-Hinojosa A, Sanai N, Soriano-Navarro M, et al. Cellular composition and cytoarchitecture of the adult human subventricular zone: a niche of neural stem cells. J Comp Neurol. 2006;494:415–34.
Rinehart JF, Farquhar MG. Electron microscopic studies of the anterior pituitary gland. J Histochem Cytochem. 1953;1:93–113.
Rosenfeld MG, Briata P, Dasen J, et al. Multistep signaling and transcriptional requirements for pituitary organogenesis in vivo. Recent Prog Horm Res. 2000;55:1–13; discussion 13–4.
Sanai N, Tramontin AD, Quinones-Hinojosa A, et al. Unique astrocyte ribbon in adult human brain contains neural stem cells but lacks chain migration. Nature. 2004;427:740–4.
Scully KM, Rosenfeld MG. Pituitary development: regulatory codes in mammalian organogenesis. Science. 2002;295:2231–5.
Starzl TE. Peter Brian Medawar: father of transplantation. J Am Coll Surg. 1995;180:332–6.
Taniguchi Y, Yasutaka S, Kominami R, et al. Proliferation and differentiation of rat anterior pituitary cells. Anat Embryol (Berl). 2002;206:1–11.
Vankelecom H. Non-hormonal cell types in the pituitary candidating for stem cell. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2007;18:559–70.
Vankelecom H. Stem cells in the postnatal pituitary? Neuroendocrinology. 2007;85:110–30.
Vila-Porcile E. The network of the folliculo-stellate cells and the follicles of the adenohypophysis in the rat (pars distalis). Z Zellforsch Mikrosk Anat. 1972;129:328–69.
von Eiselsberg A. Ueber erfolgreiche einheilung der Katzenschilddrfise in die Bauchdecke und Auftreten von Tetanie nach deren Exstirpafion. Wieno klin Woch. 1892;81.
Voorhees JR, Tubbs RS, Nahed B, et al. William S. Halsted and Harvey W. Cushing: reflections on their complex association. J Neurosurg. 2009;110:384–90.
Yoshimura F, Harumiya K, Ishikawa H, et al. Differentiation of isolated chromophobes into acidophils or basophils when transplanted into the hypophysiotrophic area of hypothalamus. Endocrinol Jpn. 1969;16:531–40.
Yoshimura F, Soji T, Sato S, et al. Development and differentiation of rat pituitary follicular cells under normal and some experimental conditions with special reference to an interpretation of renewal cell system. Endocrinol Jpn. 1977;24:435–49.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pendleton, C., Quinones-Hinojosa, A. (2013). Tissue and Progenitor Cell Transplantation for the Management of Pituitary Disorders: From Harvey Cushing to the Next Frontier. In: Bhattacharya, N., Stubblefield, P. (eds) Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4171-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4171-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4170-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4171-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)