title: Hidden face of the anterior pituitary.
abstract: The traditional view holds that the anterior pituitary is an endocrine gland with a complex and heterogeneous distribution of cells throughout the parenchyma. Thus, a long-distance mode of intraorgan communication is not usually taken into account in our understanding of pituitary functioning. However, recent in situ pituitary studies have begun to unveil a hitherto unknown route of large-scale information transfer within the pituitary. Agranular folliculostellate cells - the sixth type of pituitary cell initially discovered almost half a century ago - are the functional units of a dynamically active cell network wiring the whole gland. Because folliculostellate cells communicate with their endocrine neighbors, this opens the door to considering the pituitary as a cellular puzzle more ordered than was first thought. Hence, cell networking within the pituitary gland could have a privileged role in coordinating the activities of distant cells in both physiological and pathological conditions.
authors.affiliation: INSERM Unit469-IFR3, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Teddy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fauquier
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lacampagne
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Travo
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mollard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000502:physiology; D008867:Microtomy; D010903:Pituitary Gland, Anterior / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D007473:Ion Channels; D002118:Calcium