垂體（pituitary）是下丘腦-垂體-腎上腺 （hpa） 軸的重要樞紐。垂體激素分泌細(xì)胞 （hpc） 釋放多種激素，以在正常和壓力條件下調(diào)節(jié)基本身體功能。垂體內(nèi)分泌腺通過釋放促腎上腺皮質(zhì)激素 （acth） 來調(diào)節(jié)免疫系統(tǒng)，以響應(yīng)下丘腦的神經(jīng)元激活。然而，目前尚不清楚全身炎癥如何調(diào)節(jié)垂體hpc的轉(zhuǎn)錄組學(xué)特征。在這里，我們對(duì)小鼠垂體進(jìn)行了單細(xì)胞rna測(cè)序（scrna-seq），發(fā)現(xiàn)在炎癥發(fā)生時(shí)，所有主要的垂體hpc都以細(xì)胞類型特異性方式產(chǎn)生強(qiáng)烈反應(yīng)，其中皮質(zhì)促物表現(xiàn)出強(qiáng)烈的反應(yīng)。全身炎癥還導(dǎo)致非典型生物活性分子的產(chǎn)生和釋放，包括皮質(zhì)激素的 nptx2，以調(diào)節(jié)免疫穩(wěn)態(tài)。同時(shí)，hpcs上調(diào)了趨化因子的基因表達(dá)，促進(jìn)了hpcs與免疫細(xì)胞之間的通訊。總之，我們的研究揭示了垂體和免疫系統(tǒng)之間的廣泛相互作用，表明垂體在介導(dǎo)炎癥對(duì)身體生理學(xué)許多方面的影響方面發(fā)揮著多方面的作用。
macrophage depletion and virus injection in the pituitarymice were anesthetized with pentobarbital (80 mg/kg, i.p.) before surgery and then placed in a mouse stereotaxic instrument. injections were performed using a microsyringe pump and a micro4 controller (world precision instruments). for macrophage depletion, liposome-pbs or liposome-clodronate (liposoma,cp-005-005) was stereotaxically microinjected into the anterior pituitary (2.5 mm posterior from bregma, 0.4 mm lateral, 6 mm below pia). the liposomes were delivered to the target site at a rate of 60 nl/min for 500 nl per site. mice received saline or 0.5 mg/kg lps 18 h after liposome delivery and were killed 6 h after inflammation was established. for ccl2 expression and nptx2-ko, aav was delivered directly into the pituitary. the injection site, rate, and volume were the same as those used for the liposome injection. subsequent experiments were performed at least 3 weeks after virus injection.
(c) representative images showing iba1 (the marker of macrophage) expression in the pituitary from mice that received liposome-pbs (left) or liposome-clodronate (right) directly to the pituitary for 24 h. scale bar, 100 μm.
(d) serum concentrations of acth in saline- or lps-treated (0.5 mg/kg lps for 6 h) mice pretreated with liposome-pbs or liposome-clodronate (n = 4–7 mice).
(e) serum concentrations of corticosterone in lps-treated (0.5 mg/kg lps for 6 h) mice pretreated with liposome-pbs or liposome-clodronate (n = 6–7 mice).