Endocrine Abstracts

The classical paradigm of lactotroph prolactin production and release is based around tonic inhibition by hypothalamic dopamine and stimulation by factors such as estrogen. We have recently shown that conditional ablation of pituitary androgen receptor (Foxg1-Cre ARKO) surprisingly does not change the concentration of circulating gonadotrophins but increases circulating prolactin in male mice; highlighting androgen signalling as a novel negative regulator of prolactin producti...

Somatic stem cells of multiple tissues such as brain, blood, gut epithelium and epidermis, have specific roles in tissue homeostasis and plasticity of cell types. There is evidence that, when mutated, such cells, termed cancer stem cells (CSCs), also underlie tumorigenesis, but their presence in many tumours is elusive. In the pituitary gland, somatic stem cells (PSCs) have been previously identified and characterised in vitro and in vivo, but so far there is no ...

Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathway is required during embryonic development for normal cell proliferation, differentiation and for organ homeostasis in adulthood. Over-activation of this pathway has been implicated in human cancers such as colon or skin cancers. Here, we demonstrate that enhancement of the Wnt pathway in the embryonic Rathke’s pouch causes over-proliferation of progenitor cells and severe differentiation defects in the Pit1-lineage, which results ...