Notch signaling in pituitary cell proliferation during development and tumor formation
During pituitary organogenesis, cells proliferate in a structure known as Rathke's Pouch and migrate to the anterior lobe, where they differentiate. The cell proliferation decrease in the early stages of normal pituitary gland development opens the road to cell differentiation. A significant difference in cell proliferation activity in Rathke's pouch occurs between E12.5 and E16.5 in murine pituitary development. At E16.5 specialized hormone producing cells appear in the anterior pituitary. In the experiments, Cyclin D2 is highly active and cell cycle inhibitors are inactive in E12.5. It is clear that the Notch Receptor plays an important function in cell proliferation. These data suggest that Notch signaling may be participating in the inhibition of cycle inhibitors thus to induce the differentiation at E16.5. Specifically, the Notch signaling could promote the cell proliferation by preventing expression of cell cycle inhibitors. Understanding Notch signaling in the pituitary gland during its development will help in understanding of how the growth process becomes missregulated in pituitary tumors in humans.
School:
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
Department:
Chemistry
Research Advisor:
Lori Raetzman
Department of Research Advisor:
Integrative and Molecular Physiology
Year of Publication:
2006