Endocrine Abstracts

All secretory cells of the anterior and intermediate pituitary derive from the oral ectoderm that forms Rathke’s pouch. Pituitary progenitors present in the pouch as well as similar progenitor/stem cells that remain along the cleft of the adult gland, are marked by expression of Sox2. Sox2-positive progenitors can self-replicate or enter differentiation. Before any differentiation marker is expressed, progenitors first exit the cell cycle under the control of the cell cyc...