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This version published online on January 27, 2005
Endocrinology, doi:10.1210/en.2004-1209
A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2005
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Submitted on September 10, 2004
Accepted on January 20, 2005

Nestin-immunoreactive cells in rat pituitary are neither hormonal nor typical folliculo-stellate cells

Olga Krylyshkina, Jianghai Chen, Liese Mebis, Carl Denef, and Hugo Vankelecom*

Laboratory of Cell Pharmacology, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven) School of Medicine, Campus Gasthuisberg (O&N), B-3000 Leuven, Belgium

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Hugo.Vankelecom{at}med.kuleuven.ac.be.

Nestin is an intermediate filament protein that has originally been identified as a marker of neuroepithelial stem/progenitor cells. The present study explored whether nestin immunoreactivity (nestin-ir) is present in the rat pituitary and in which cell type(s).

Nestin-ir was observed in scattered cells in the anterior (AL), intermediate (IL) and neural lobe (NL). Nestin-ir cells were predominantly of stellate shape, and were more numerous in immature than in adult animals. Nestin-ir did not colocalize with any pituitary hormone, and not or only very sporadically with the folliculo-stellate cell marker S100. In the IL, nestin-ir cells contained GFAP in an age-dependent manner. Nestin-ir cells were closely associated with endothelial and fibronectin-ir cells but did mostly not coincide. Nestin-ir was not found in (-smooth muscle actin ({alpha}SMA)-ir myofibroblasts, neither in microglial cells. Irrespective of age nestin-ir was detected in some unidentifiable cells that border the pituitary cleft.

Nestin-ir remained present in pituitary cultured as three-dimensional aggregates. Treatment with bFGF or LIF increased the number of nestin-ir cells. Starting from AL cell monolayer cultures, nestin-ir cells could be selected and propagated to a virtually pure population. These nestin-ir cells displayed remarkable motility and proliferative activity, and did not express hormones, GFAP or S100, but contained vimentin-, fibronectin- and {alpha}SMA-ir.

In conclusion, nestin-ir is present in the pituitary in cells that are neither hormonal nor typical folliculo-stellate. The expression pattern depends on age and lobe examined. Pericapillar localization suggests a pericyte phenotype for some of them. Whether the heterogeneous nestin-ir population also contains pituitary progenitor cells, remains to be explored.
Key words: pituitary • nestin • folliculo-stellate • hormone • S100 • GFAP • stem/progenitor cell • pericyte • mesenchymal • immunofluorescence




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