Pituitary adenomas, monoclonal in origin, are the most common intracranial neoplasms. Altered gene expression as well as somatic mutations is detected frequently in pituitary adenomas. The purpose of this study was to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and biological processes during tumor formation of pituitary adenomas. We performed an integrated analysis of publicly available GEO d...

Among pituitary disorders having mass effect of the pituitary gland, nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenoma and lymphocytic hypophysitis are difficult to differentiate without histological examination. In order to efficiently distinguish lymphocytic hypophysitis and pituitary tumors, we studied the presence of autoantibodies against prohormone-processing enzymes, prohormone convertase (PC) 1/3, ...

Clinically-relevant pituitary adenomas occur with a prevalence of approximately 1 per 1000 population in Belgium. Pituitary adenomas that occur in families are likely to have an important genetic pathophysiological basis. Currently about 5% of all pituitary adenoma cases have a family history of pituitary adenomas, classically due to multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and Carney complex...

Hypophysitis that develops in cancer patients treated with monoclonal antibodies blocking cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4; an inhibitory molecule classically expressed on T cells) is now reported at an incidence of approximately 10%. Its pathogenesis is unknown, in part because no pathologic examination of the pituitary gland has been reported to date. We analyzed at autopsy...

We present the evolution of pituitary changes in the cases of 2 patients with Sheehan syndrome as assessed by MR imaging. Both patients had severe postpartum hemorrhage, symptoms of pituitary gland apoplexy, and hypopituitarism. Sequential MR imaging demonstrated evidence of ischemic infarct in the pituitary gland with enlargement followed by gradual shrinkage during several months, to pituitar...

Intra-cranial aneurysm can be incidental findings in patients with pituitary adenomas, and are usually located outside the pituitary region. However, the coexistence of intrasellar (not intracranial) aneurysms with pituitary adenomas is extremely rare. We report a patient with an incidental superior hypophygeal aneurysm embedded within a non-functional pituitary adenoma which was treated by tra...

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pituitary calcifications using cone beam computed tomography in a group of Turkish individuals. Material and methods: Cone beam computed tomography scans in the axial, coronal and sagittal planes of the pituitary gland of 284 patients were examined for evidence of pituitary calcification. Results: In the cone beam compute...

BACKGROUND Pituitary adenomas display an array of hormonal and proliferative activity. Once primarily classified according to size (microadenomas, < 1 cm; macroadenomas, > or = 1 cm), these tumors are now further classified according to immunohistochemistry and functional status. With these additional classifications in mind, the goals of the current study were to determine the prevalence of pi...

Wnt signaling is important in organogenesis, and aberrant signaling in mature cells is associated with tumorigenesis. Several members of the Wnt family of signaling molecules are expressed in the developing pituitary gland. Wnt5a is expressed in the neuroectoderm that induces pituitary gland development and has been proposed to influence pituitary cell specification. We discovered that mice def...

The pituitary gland is an endocrine organ that is developmentally derived from a fold in the oral ectoderm and a juxtaposed fold in the neural ectoderm. Here, we show that the absence of Vax1, a homeodomain transcription factor known for its role in eye and optic chiasm development, causes the rostral oral ectoderm to form an ectopic fold that eventually develops into a separate second pituitar...