Isolation and characterization of adrenocortical progenitors involved in the adaptation to stress

Abstract

Humans are constantly challenged by multiple stressors, to which the body’s response and adaptation are essential. The adrenal gland plays a major role in the response to both physiological challenges and stress. Maintenance of the adrenal is partly accomplished by proliferation and differentiation of adult progenitors and stem cells in the adrenal cortex and medulla. In previous studies, the authors demonstrated a direct effect of adrenocortical growth factors and androgens on proliferation and differentiation of adult adrenomedullary chromaffin cells (7) and chromaffin progenitor cells (8). They also showed that Nestin+ stem-like cells in the adrenal medulla play an important role under stress, predominantly differentiating into chromaffin cells (9).