Transcriptome of zebrafish neurohypophyseal astroglia (pituicytes)

The hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system (HNS) is an interface through which the brain regulates body homeostasis by means of releasing the hypothalamic neurohormones oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin to the general circulation. The basic components of the HNS are the hypothalamic axonal projections, endothelial blood vessels and astroglial-like cells, termed pituicytes. These three tissue types converge and interact at the ventral forebrain to establish an efficient neuro-vascular interface, which allows the release of neurohormones from the brain to the periphery. However, the molecular blueprint of pituicytes-specific genes is still unknown. We have labelled and isolated zebrafish pituicytes cells and have identified their molecular signature. Overall design: mRNA profiles of hypophyseal b-Ala-Lys-Ne positive (pituicytes) and b-Ala-Lys-Ne negative (non-pituicytes) were generated by next-generation sequencing, in 5 biological replicates, using Illumina HiSeq 2500 v4 instrument