Project description:Nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs) are among the most frequent intracranial tumors but their molecular background, including changes in epigenetic regulation, remains poorly understood. We performed genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of 34 NFPAs and normal pituitary samples. Methylation status of the selected genomic regions and expression level of corresponding genes were assessed in a group of 75 patients. NFPAs exhibited distinct global methylation profile as compared to normal pituitary. Aberrant DNA methylation appears to contribute to deregulation of the cancer-related pathways as shown by preliminary functional analysis. Promoter hypermethylation and decreased expression level of SFN, STAT5A, DUSP1, PTPRE and FGFR2 was confirmed in the enlarged group of NFPAs. Difference in the methylation profiles between invasive and non-invasive NFPAs is very slight. Nevertheless, invasiveness-related aberrant epigenetic deregulation of the particular genes was found including upregulation of ITPKB and downregulation CNKSR1 in invasive tumors.
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.
Project description:Pituitary adenomas are benign tumors originating from the endocrine cells of the pituitary gland, but some pathological subtypes are highly invasive, known as invasive pituitary adenomas. Invasive pituitary adenomas are relatively rare, progress rapidly, easily invade surrounding tissues, have a high risk of recurrence, and have poor response to standard treatments. This study collected tumor specimens from 17 patients with non-invasive pituitary adenomas (FSH type) and 15 patients with invasive pituitary adenomas (ACTH-silent type), and performed transcriptome sequencing, aiming to explore the genetic differences between invasive and non-invasive pituitary adenomas.
Project description:Pituitary tumors are generally considered as benign. However, many are invasive (45 to 55%) and some are described as aggressive with a high proliferation rate and short post-operative time to recurrence and 0.2% metastasize. The molecular events associated to the progression of the pituitary tumor toward an aggressive and malignant phenotype is still unresolved. To bring new hypothesis on signaling pathways associated to the tumor progression, we applied a wide genome analysis approach combining transcriptome analysis and CGH analysis on the same 13 prolactin tumours classified as non-invasive (n=5), invasive (n=2) and agressive-invasive tumors (n=6). In 5/6 agressive-invasive tumours a loss of a common region in the p arm of the chromosome 11 was detected. This region extending from position 14.9 to position 46.5 Mb harbours the cytobands 11p15.2, 11p15.1, 11p14.3, 11p14.2, 11p14.1, 11p13, 11p12 and 11p11.2. In 3 of these 5 tumours considered as carcinomas because of the presence of metastasis, an allelic loss is also observed in the 11q arm. The combination of data coming from genome structure exploration and transcriptomic analysis showed that allelic loss impact the expression of genes harbored in the imbalanced region. Data filtering strategy allowed us to highlight among the 139 genes harbored in the 11p region loss, 5 genes (DGKZ, CD44, TSG101, GTF2H1 and HTATIP2) that could be candidate gene for triggering the progression of prolactin tumour toward an aggressive and malignant phenotype. Finally, specific DNA alterations give one molecular argument more to consider agressive-invasive tumour and carcinomas as a distinct step in progression of the pituitary tumours. Copy number analysis of Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 was performed for 13 prolactin tumors, 6 aggressive-invasive, 2 invasive, 5 non-invasive. The same analysis was performed for one normal pituitary and one genomic DNA called "reference 103" from Affymetrix.
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. Keywords: other
Project description:The regulation of pituitary function via the hypothalamus and via intra-pituitary connections represents a complex system. Though hormones secreted from the pituitary glands have been well studied, overall information of proteins expressed in the pituitary glands is very limited. Protein expression profiling of normal pituitary tissue may lead to discovery of novel proteins playing an important role in the physiology of pituitary glands and can lead to better understanding of pituitary gland diseases. We aimed to carry out systematic proteomic profiling of adenohypophysis from human pituitary glands using high-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometer. A total of 2,175 proteins were identified in this study of which, 105 proteins were identified for the first time as compared to high throughput proteomic-based studies from human pituitary glands. The comprehensive list of proteins identified in this study will facilitate the better understanding the role of this important gland in health and disease.
Project description:Acromegaly is a severe and life-threatening disease caused by persistent excess of growth hormone (GH) which stimulates the synthesis and secretion of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). In the majority (95%) of patients acromegaly is caused by sporadic GH-secreting neuroendocrine pituitary tumor (PitNET). Acromegaly-causing tumors are histologically diverse. The aim was to determine transcriptomic profiles in different histological subtypes and evaluate clinical implication of differential gene expression.
Project description:Context : Non Functioning Pituitary Adenomas (NFPAs), although typically benign, may be locally invasive. Few datas are currently available related to the molecular process of invasion in sporadic pituitary adenomas. Markers of invasiveness, important for helping the clinician in the therapeutic strategy particularly in the decision for adjuvant radiotherapy, are currently lacking. Objective: Evaluate if invasive NFPAs display a specific expression profile compared with non invasive tumors. Methods: To address this issue, we selected 40 NFPAs (38 of the gonadotroph type) and classified them as invasive (n=22) or non invasive (n=18) on the basis of MRI and surgical findings. Then we performed pangenomic analysis based on Agilent Human Whole genome Gene Expression oligonucleotide microarray (44k) Expression in order to identify genes differentially expressed between invasive and non invasive NFPA. Experiements are made in dual color with tumor samples labelled in cyanine 5 and a pool of all tumors labelled in cyanine 3.The expressions of some genes identified by microarray screening were confirmed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The selection of genes was made on the basis of Ingenuity networks and degree of upregulation between invasive and non invasive tumors. Moreover, some genes of interest already described in the literature were added to the analysis. Results: Prediction class analysis showed that 346 genes discriminated between invasive and non invasive NFPAs (p<0.001); 233 were up- and 113 were down-regulated between the two groups. We then tested On the basis of Ingenuity networks and degree of upregulation between invasive and non invasive tumors, a set of eight genes, including MYO5A, IGFBP5, FLT3, NFE2L1, PTTG, MMP9, NCAM and NR1H3, was tested in quantitative PCR analysis and. Results confirmed those obtained in microarrays results.analysis. At the protein level, Myosin 5A (MYO5A) demonstrated stronger immunostaining in invasive NFPAs compared to non invasive NFPAs. Conclusions: We propose a molecular signature of eight genes of grossly invasive NFPAs as compared with non invasive tumors: The product of one of these genes, MYO5A, may be a useful marker of invasive process in tumoral specimens. The role of these genes in the invasiveness process and as prognostic markers of pituitary adenomas needs to be confirmedinvestigated. Method: Microarray analyses the transcriptome of 22 invasive Non Functional Pituitary Adenomas (NFPAs) and 18 non invasive NFPAs in dual color (each sample labelled in cyanine 5 and a pool of all tumors labelled in cyanine 3).
Project description:Background: Lactotroph pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) are common pituitary tumors, but their underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the transcriptomic landscape of lactotroph PitNETs and identify potential molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets through RNA sequencing and ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA). Methods: Lactotroph PitNET tissues from five surgical cases without dopamine agonist treatment underwent RNA sequencing. Normal pituitary tissues from three patients served as controls. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and the functional pathways and gene networks were explored by IPA. Results: Transcriptome analysis revealed that lactotroph PitNETs had gene expression patterns that were distinct from normal pituitary tissues. We identified 1,172 upregulated DEGs, including nine long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) belonging to the top 30 DEGs. IPA of the upregulated DEGs showed that the estrogen receptor signaling, oxidative phosphorylation signaling, and EIF signaling were activated. In gene network analysis, key upstream regulators, such as EGR1, PRKACA, PITX2, CREB1, and JUND, may play critical roles in lactotroph PitNETs.