Hypothalamic‐pituitary organoid generation through the recapitulation of organogenesis

This paper overviews the development and differentiation of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland from embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. It is important to replicate the developmental process in vivo to create specific cells/organoids from ES/iPS cells. We also introduce the latest findings and discuss future issues for clinical application. Neuroectodermal progenitors are induced from pluripotent stem cells by strictly removing exogenous patterning factors during the early differentiation period. The induced progenitors differentiate into rostral hypothalamic neurons, in particular magnocellular vasopressin+ neurons. In three-dimensional cultures, the ES/iPS cells differentiate into hypothalamic neuroectoderm as well as non-neural head ectoderm back to back. Rathke's pouch-like structures self-organize at the interface between the two layers and generated various endocrine cells, including corticotrophs and somatotrophs from the Rathke's pouch-like structures. Our next objective is to sophisticate our stepwise methodology to establish the novel transplantation treatment for hypopituitarism and to apply it to developmental disease models.