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Concise Review: Paracrine Role of Stem Cells in Pituitary Tumors: A Focus on Adamantinomatous Craniopharyngioma

Martinez-Barbera, JP; Andoniadou, CL; (2016) Concise Review: Paracrine Role of Stem Cells in Pituitary Tumors: A Focus on Adamantinomatous Craniopharyngioma. Stem Cells 10.1002/stem.2267. Green open access

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Abstract

The existence of tissue-specific progenitor/stem cells in the adult pituitary gland of the mouse has been demonstrated recently using genetic tracing experiments. These cells have the capacity to differentiate into all of the different cell lineages of the anterior pituitary and self-propagate in vitro and can therefore contribute to normal homeostasis of the gland. In addition, they play a critical role in tumor formation, specifically in the etiology of human adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma, a clinically relevant tumor that is associated with mutations in CTNNB1 (gene encoding β-catenin). Mouse studies have shown that only pituitary embryonic precursors or adult stem cells are able to generate tumors when targeted with oncogenic β-catenin, suggesting that the cell context is critical for mutant β-catenin to exert its oncogenic effect. Surprisingly, the bulk of the tumor cells are not derived from the mutant progenitor/stem cells, suggesting that tumors are induced in a paracrine manner. Therefore, the cell sustaining the mutation in β-catenin and the cell-of-origin of the tumors are different. In this review, we will discuss the in vitro and in vivo evidence demonstrating the presence of stem cells in the adult pituitary and analyze the evidence showing a potential role of these stem cells in pituitary tumors. Stem Cells 2016.

Type: Article
Title: Concise Review: Paracrine Role of Stem Cells in Pituitary Tumors: A Focus on Adamantinomatous Craniopharyngioma
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/stem.2267
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/stem.2267
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 The Authors Stem Cells published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of AlphaMed Press. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Pituitary, Sox2, Stem cells, Tumors, WNT pathway
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Developmental Biology and Cancer Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1474007
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