Brain stem cells adopt a pituitary fate after implantation into the adult rodent pituitary gland.

Fetal brain stem cells (RSCs) have been induced to express pituitary phenotypes in vitro in co-cultures with GH(3) cells and by exposure to GH(3)-conditioned media. In the current studies, we graft RSCs into the pituitary glands of adult rat to investigate whether grafted RSCs can be induced by the native gland to acquire pituitary properties. Grafted cells survive for 4 weeks and express Pit-1, GH, FSH, LH, ACTH, TSH and to a lesser extent PRL indicating that inductive influences are operative in vivo as well. This demonstrates that pluripotential cells can be induced to acquire properties of tissues different from their organ of origin likely through the action of cell-cell contact and local tissue factors.