Our new paper on the medaka pituitary 3D atlas has just been released in Frontiers in Endocrinology. It has improved since the first version on Biorxiv thanks to reviewer comments. Entitled “3D atlas of the pituitary gland of the model fish medaka (Oryzias latipes), this article provide the first 3D atlas of a teleost pituitary.
This atlas is now available on the NMBU website and can be used by the scientific community. 4 atlases have been done, for male and female, juvenile and adult pituitary. The seven endocrine cell types are present together with the blood vessels. The 3D representation clearly revealed differences between sexes for some of the endocrine cell populations.
Abstract: In vertebrates, the anterior pituitary plays a crucial role in regulating several essential physiological processes via the secretion of at least seven peptide hormones by different endocrine cell types. Comparative and comprehensive knowledge of the spatial distribution of those endocrine cell types is required to better understand their physiological functions. Using medaka as a model and several combinations of multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization, we present the first 3D atlas revealing the gland-wide distribution of seven endocrine cell populations: lactotropes, thyrotropes, Lh and Fsh gonadotropes, somatotropes, and pomca-expressing cells (corticotropes and melanotropes) in the anterior pituitary of a teleost fish. By combining in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence techniques, we deciphered the location of corticotropes and melanotropes within the pomca-expressing cell population. The 3D localization approach reveals sexual dimorphism of tshba-, pomca-, and lhb-expressing cells in the adult medaka pituitary. Finally, we show the existence of bi-hormonal cells co-expressing lhb-fshb, fshb-tshba and lhb-sl using single-cell transcriptomics analysis and in situ hybridization. This study offers a solid basis for future comparative studies of the teleost pituitary and its functional plasticity.
The article can be found here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.719843/abstract
