Anterior pituitary is critical for endocrine systems. Its hormonal responses to positive and negative regulators are indispensable for homeostasis. For this reason, generating human anterior pituitary tissue that retains regulatory hormonal control in vitro is an important step for the development of cell transplantation therapy for pituitary diseases. Here we achieve this by recapitulating mouse pituitary development using human embryonic stem cells. We find that anterior pituitary self-forms in vitro following the co-induction of hypothalamic and oral ectoderm. The juxtaposition of these tissues facilitated the formation of pituitary placode, which subsequently differentiated into pituitary hormone-producing cells. They responded normally to both releasing and feedback signals. In addition, after transplantation into hypopituitary mice, the in vitro-generated corticotrophs rescued physical activity levels and survival of the hosts. Thus, we report a useful methodology for the production of regulator-responsive human pituitary tissue that may benefit future studies in regenerative medicine.

中文翻译：

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在人类胚胎干细胞的自组织培养中产生的功能性垂体前叶。

垂体前叶对于内分泌系统至关重要。它对正负调节剂的激素反应对于体内平衡是必不可少的。因此，在体外产生保留垂体激素控制的人类垂体前叶组织是开发垂体疾病细胞移植疗法的重要步骤。在这里，我们通过概述使用人类胚胎干细胞的小鼠垂体发育来实现这一目标。我们发现下丘脑和口腔外胚层共同诱导后垂体前叶自身形成。这些组织的并置促进了垂体斑的形成，其随后分化为垂体激素产生细胞。他们通常对释放和反馈信号做出响应。另外，移植到垂体小鼠后，体外产生的皮质激素可拯救身体的活动水平和宿主的存活率。因此，我们报告了一种有用的方法来生产调节剂反应性人类垂体组织，这可能有益于再生医学的未来研究。