Isolation of dendritic-cell-like S100β-positive cells in rat anterior pituitary gland

S100β-protein-positive cells in the anterior pituitary gland appear to possess multifunctional properties. Because of their pleiotropic features, S100β-positive cells are assumed to be of a heterogeneous or even a non-pituitary origin. The observation of various markers has allowed these cells to be classified into populations such as stem/progenitor cells, epithelial cells, astrocytes and dendritic cells. The isolation and characterization of each heterogeneous population is a prerequisite for clarifying the functional character and origin of the cells. We attempt to isolate two of the subpopulations of S100β-positive cells from the anterior lobe. First, from transgenic rats that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) driven by the S100β protein promoter, we fractionate GFP-positive cells with a cell sorter and culture them so that they can interact with laminin, a component of the extracellular matrix. We observe that one morphological type of GFP-positive cells possesses extended cytoplasmic processes and shows high adhesiveness to laminin (process type), whereas the other is round in shape and exhibits low adherence to laminin (round type). We successfully isolate cells of the round type from the cultured GFP-positive cells by taking advantage of their low affinity to laminin and then measure mRNA levels of the two cell types by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The resultant data show that the process type expresses vimentin (mesenchymal cell marker) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (astrocyte marker). The round type expresses dendritic cell markers, CD11b and interleukin-6. Thus, we found a method for isolating dendritic-cell-like S100β-positive cells by means of their property of adhering to laminin.