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Three-dimensional studies of Prop1-expressing cells in the rat pituitary primordium of Rathke's pouch

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Abstract

Pituitary embryonic development progresses daily toward terminal differentiation exhibiting quantitative and qualitative alterations regulated by signal molecules and transcription factors expressed under temporospatial control. In this study, we analyzed the heterogeneity of the cells in the pituitary primordium of embryonic day (E) 13.5. The three-dimensional structure of the Rathke’s pouch was built up from measurements taken from multiple DAPI-stained sections and cell populations positive to stem/progenitor marker SOX2 and pituitary-specific transcription factor PROP1 were analyzed. The pituitary primordium (Rathke’s pouch) of E13.5 showed a flattened discoid shape of about 500 μm in diameter and 200 μm depth in a dorsoventral axis and consisted in about 5,800 cells. Immunohistochemistry revealed that 0.3% of the cells in Rathke’s pouch were SOX2-negative in the lateral region, whereas all cells at E12.5 were SOX2-positive. On E13.5, the shape and size of their nuclei showed a location-specific divergence: ellipsoid morphology in the median region and round morphology in the lateral region. Moreover, on E14.5, adrenocorticotropic-hormone-positive cells (the first hormone-producing cells appearing in the pituitary) contained round nuclei. These data suggest that differentiation to pituitary-hormone-producing cells from SOX2-negative cells starts in the lateral region between E12.5 and E13.5 and that the onset of differentiation is preceded by a change in nuclear shape.

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Abbreviations

ACTH:

Adrenocorticotropic hormone

FITC:

Fluorescein isothiocyanate

DAPI:

4′,6-Diamino-2-phenylindole

PROP1:

Homeobox protein prophet of Pit1

SOX2:

Sex determining region Y-box 2

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. S. Tanaka of Shizuoka University for the antibody to human ACTH and to Dr. L.-Y. Cai of Nanjing Medical University for his valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Life Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Meiji University, Kanagawa, Japan

    Hideji Yako, Saishu Yoshida & Yukio Kato

  2. Institute of Reproduction and Endocrinology, Meiji University, Kanagawa, Japan

    Takako Kato & Yukio Kato

  3. Division of Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan

    Kinji Inoue

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  1. Hideji Yako
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  2. Takako Kato
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  3. Saishu Yoshida
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  4. Kinji Inoue
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  5. Yukio Kato
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yukio Kato.

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Hideji Yako and Takako Kato contributed equally to this work.

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

This research was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) no. 21380184 and a Research Grant (A) to Y.K. from the Institute of Science and Technology, Meiji University.

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Yako, H., Kato, T., Yoshida, S. et al. Three-dimensional studies of Prop1-expressing cells in the rat pituitary primordium of Rathke's pouch. Cell Tissue Res 346, 339–346 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-011-1273-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-011-1273-8

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