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Gene expression profiling in human ACTH-secreting pituitary tumors

ABSTRACT: Corticotropin (ACTH)-secreting pituitary adenomas give rise to a severe endocrinological disorder, i.e., Cushing’s disease, with multifaceted clinical presentation and treatment outcomes. Experimental studies suggested that disease variability is inherent to the pituitary tumor, thus pointing to the need for further studies into tumor biology. Aim of the present study was to evaluate transcriptome expression pattern in a large series of ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma specimens, in order to identify molecular signatures of these tumors. Gene expression profiling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens from 40 human ACTH-secreting pituitary adenomas revealed significant expression of genes involved in protein biosynthesis and ribosomal function, in keeping with neuroendocrine cell profile. Unsupervised cluster analysis identified three distinct gene profile clusters and several genes were uniquely overexpressed in a given cluster, accounting for different molecular signatures. Of note, gene expression profiles were associated with clinical features such as age and size of the tumor. Altogether, our study shows that corticotrope tumors are characterized by neuroendocrine gene expression profile and present subgroup-specific molecular features.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE93825 | GEO | 2018/06/18

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Pituitary adenomas are common benign neoplasms giving rise to disorders of growth, reproductive function and cortisol production. Although recently determined to be monoclonal, very little is known about the mechanisms regulating the development of pituitary hyperplasia and neoplasia in humans. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice for most symptomatic pituitary adenomas. The goal of surgery is the complete removal of the tumor and the success of surgery is strongly affected by the presence of local invasion. However, complete tumor removal is unlikely when there is extensive local invasion. Identifying genes that control the invasiveness and recurrence of this class of tumors will provide therapeutic targets for this class of tumors. We will determine the expression pattern of genes in recurrent and invasive and pituitary adenomas and compare those to non-invasive and non-recurrent tumors. We hypothesize that the differential expression and activation of a number of genes affect pituitary adenoma recurrence and invasiveness. Rationale: Preliminary result showed a differential expression of novel PKC isozymes in non-invasive and invasive pituitary adenomas. PMA, an activator of both novel and classical PKC isozymes increased the expression of gelatinase A (MMP-2) mRNA in human pituitary adenoma cell line. This result raises a fundamental question as to the functional role of novel PKC isozymes and proteases in the invasive phenotype of pituitary adenomas. The primary component of this Specific Aim is to determine whether specific genes are differentially expressed in recurrent or invasive adenomas when compared with control non-invasive tumors. Tissue specimens from non-invasive and invasive (dural invasion based microscopic examination) and recurrent vs non-recurrent tumors will be used for microarray analysis. Frozen pituitaryspecimens will be collected and total RNA extracted with TriZol reagent. We will provide total RNA (10 ug) from non-invasive, invasive, reoccurred and non-occurrent pituitary adenomas.

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Gene expression profiling in human ACTH-secreting pituitary tumors

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