期刊
GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY
卷 185, 期 -, 页码 10-18出版社
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2013.01.009
关键词
Pituitary gland; Angiogenesis; VEGF-A; Melanotrope; Dopamine neuron; Transgenic Xenopus
资金
- Ministry of Education and Sciences of Japan
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [23791014] Funding Source: KAKEN
The pars distalis (PD) and the pars intermedia (PI) have the same embryonic origin, but their morphological and functional characteristics diverge during development. The PD is highly vascularized, whereas the highly innervated PI is essentially non-vascularized. Based on our previous finding that vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is involved in vascularization of the rat PD, attempt was made to generate transgenic Xenopus expressing VEGF-A specifically in the melanotrope cells of the PI as a model system for studying the significance of vascularization or avascularization for the functional differentiation of the pituitary. The PI of the transgenic frogs, examined after metamorphosis, were distinctly vascularized but poorly innervated. The experimentally induced vascularization in the PI resulted in a marked increase in tissue volume and a decrease in the expression of both alpha-melanophore-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) and prohormone convertase 2, a cleavage enzyme essential for generating alpha-MSH. The transgenic animals had low plasma alpha-MSH concentrations and displayed incomplete adaptation to a black background. To our knowledge, this is the first report indicating that experimentally induced angiogenesis in the PI may bring about functional as well as structural alterations in this tissue. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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