Editorial: The Anterior Pituitary Gland - Co-Ordinating an Alphabet of Peptides

ABSTRACT

The pituitary has been described as the Master Gland, even as we progress through the contemporary era of comprehensive proteomic arrays [1, 2]. The label is a reflection of the range of the gland’s influences. The variety of contributions that the anterior pituitary gland makes to so many of the clearly observable events as well as covert metabolic processes in the body (e.g. stress, reproduction, growth) is a result of many pathways within the multi-cell tissue. The anterior pituitary is covered by a fibrous capsule, and the parenchyma is composed substantially of epithelial secretory cells arranged in cords or follicles. A network of fenestrated capillaries provides a system that enables transport of secretions to other distant tissues. The gland was until recent times summarised as having five endocrine cell types [3], which were later called corticotrophs, gonadotrophs, lactotrophs, somatotrophs and thyrotrophs, and additionally some apparently non-endocrine cells were identified, including folliculo-stellate cells. This model of the pituitary was a useful staging post for the investigative process. Biology is well fertilised with temporary hypotheses that enable questions to be formulated and prevailing views examined. There is sometimes danger that a plausible guess becomes sanctified as dogma. One can wonder if for a short time such occurred with this tidy model of the adenophypohysis, and in the mid 20th century some evidence for paracrine interactions were ignored by some researchers.