Accumulating evidence suggests that cellular heterogeneity in organs and cell-cell and tissue-tissue interactions are crucial for maintaining physical homeostasis and disease progression. Endocrine organs also exhibit cellular heterogeneity and comprise multiple cell types. For instance, the pituitary gland comprises five types of pituitary hormone-producing cells as well as non-hormone-producing supporting cells, such as fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and folliculostellate cells. However, the functional roles of the interactions between hormone-producing and non-producing cells in the pituitary gland remain incompletely understood. Over the past decade, emerging technologies such as single-cell and spatial transcriptomics have provided excellent tools for studying cellular heterogeneity and their interactions; however, the application of these technologies in endocrine research remains limited. This review provides an overview of these technologies and discusses their strengths and limitations. Additionally, we also summarize the potential future applications of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics in the study of endocrine organs and their disorders.

越来越多的证据表明，器官中的细胞异质性以及细胞-细胞和组织-组织相互作用对于维持身体稳态和疾病进展至关重要。内分泌器官还表现出细胞异质性并包含多种细胞类型。例如，垂体包含五种产生垂体激素的细胞以及不产生激素的支持细胞，例如成纤维细胞、内皮细胞和滤泡细胞。然而，垂体中激素产生细胞和非激素产生细胞之间相互作用的功能作用仍不完全清楚。在过去的十年中，单细胞和空间转录组学等新兴技术为研究细胞异质性及其相互作用提供了极好的工具。然而，这些技术在内分泌研究中的应用仍然有限。本综述概述了这些技术并讨论了它们的优点和局限性。此外，我们还总结了单细胞和空间转录组学在内分泌器官及其疾病研究中的潜在应用。