Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2012 Mar 31;351(1):19-27. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2011.10.002. Epub 2011 Oct 13.
It has been speculated for a number of years that Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling plays an important role in adrenal development. Over the past two years several reports have described the expression and function of Shh pathway genes in the adrenal cortex, using primarily mouse models. The key findings are that Shh signals produced by a population of partially differentiated cortical cells located in the outer cortex/zona glomerulosa are received by non-cortical mesenchymal cells located predominantly in the overlying capsule. This signal is required for growth of both the capsule and the cortex, but not for cortical zonation or steroidogenic cell differentiation. Using molecular genetic tools to define the adrenocortical cell lineages that are descended from both Shh signaling and receiving cells, both capsule and cortical cells were found to have properties of adrenocortical stem and/or progenitor cells. Here we place these observations within the context of prior studies on adrenal development, postnatal adrenal maintenance and adrenocortical stem/progenitor cell lineages.
多年来，人们一直推测 Sonic hedgehog（Shh）信号在肾上腺发育中起着重要作用。在过去的两年中，已有几项报告使用主要是小鼠模型描述了 Shh 途径基因在肾上腺皮质中的表达和功能。主要发现是，位于外皮质/肾小球带的部分分化皮质细胞产生的 Shh 信号被主要位于覆盖的囊中的非皮质间充质细胞接收。该信号对于囊和皮质的生长都是必需的，但对于皮质分带或类固醇生成细胞分化则不是必需的。使用分子遗传工具来定义来自 Shh 信号转导和接收细胞的肾上腺皮质细胞谱系，发现囊和皮质细胞均具有肾上腺皮质干细胞和/或祖细胞的特性。在这里，我们将这些观察结果置于先前关于肾上腺发育、出生后肾上腺维持和肾上腺皮质干细胞/祖细胞谱系的研究背景下。
