Mechanisms for pituitary tumorigenesis: the plastic pituitary

Mechanisms for pituitary tumorigenesis: the plastic pituitary.

The anterior pituitary gland integrates the repertoire of hormonal signals controlling thyroid, adrenal, reproductive, and growth functions. The gland responds to complex central and peripheral signals by trophic hormone secretion and by undergoing reversible plastic changes in cell growth leading to hyperplasia, involution, or benign adenomas arising from functional pituitary cells. Discussed ...

Methylation mechanisms in pituitary tumorigenesis.

Methylation is essential for embryonic development, however aberrant methylation of CpG islands associated with the tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) and leading to gene silencing is found in numerous tumour types. The TSG p16/CDKN2A is involved in the genesis of many tumour types and frequent methylation of the CpG island of the p16/CDKN2A gene is associated with loss of protein expression in pit...

The plastic fetal pituitary.

A chronically adverse intrauterine environment can foster a fetal hypercortisolemia that persists after stressful conditions are removed and well after a transient, stress-associated elevation in adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) has passed (1,2). This observation, among others, strongly suggests that chronic intrauterine stress can reprogram the fetal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis...

The Role of CtBP in Pituitary Tumorigenesis

Wnt signalling in pituitary development and tumorigenesis.

Wnt signalling is activated in both pituitary organogenesis and its mature function. Wnt ligands and Wnt signalling pathways are critical for the regulation of the formation of the pituitary. In the mature pituitary, Wnt signalling pathways control cell activity and may stimulate cell proliferation in both physiological and pathological processes. This review compares Wnt signalling pathways ac...