Tissue and progenitor cell transplantation for the management of pituitary disorders: From harvey cushing to the next frontier

The pituitary gland serves an important function in the regulation of growth, metabolism, and reproduction; in states of dysfunction, in particular, in states of hypofunction, clinical symptoms may cause tremendous effects on patient health and quality of life. Traditional treatments for hypopituitarism are pharmacological and require life-long dosing of multiple medications to maintain physiologic homeostasis. Although pharmaceuticals allow for repletion of pituitary hormones, they offer symptomatic relief rather than a cure for the disease. As the fields of immunobiology, regenerative medicine, transplantation, and stem cell research grow in the twenty-first century, the hope is that hypopituitarism may 1 day be cured through transplantation of pituitary stem cells, which may proliferate and differentiate to form functional pituitary tissue, rather than mitigated through synthetic hormones. Here, we present an overview of the various functions of the pituitary gland, the symptoms and treatments for hypopituitarism, the role of pituitary stem cells in restoring endogenous pituitary function, and a look at the past, present, and future of pituitary transplantation.