Endocrine Abstracts

Somatotroph pituitary adenomas are characterized by unrestrained hormone secretion and cell proliferation alterations. In those tumors, the only mutation so far unequivocally identified is the gsp oncogene (Gsα protein gain of function mutation). Nethertheless, there is no clear difference in the clinical phenotypes of patients bearing tumor with the gsp oncogene (gsp+) or not (gsp−). In addition, an overexpression of the wild-type Gsα protein has been o...

The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK is a conserved signalling pathway involved in the control of fundamental cellular processes. Despite extensive research, how this pathway can process a myriad of diverse extracellular inputs into specific biological outcomes is not fully understood. Particularly, the role of this pathway in neuroendocrine tumoral cells remains unclear.We have previously shown that the ERK1/2 pathway is an integrative point in the control of the pituit...

Somatostatin is a ubiquitous neuropeptidic inhibitor of various cellular functions including endocrine and exocrine secretion. Moreover, this peptide may control cell proliferation in normal and tumoral tissues. Somatostatin biological effects are mediated by five subtype of G protein-coupled receptor, sst1 through sst5. The somatostatin analogs have high affinity for sst2 receptor and the success of in vivo peptide therapy is correlated with high levels of sst2 in th...

Somatotroph adenomas are characterized by growth hormone hypersecretion and cell proliferation. We have previously identified crosstalk between the cAMP pathway and the MAPKinases ERK1/2 cascade and shown the central place of the MAPKinases in the control of the pituitary function in GH4C1 somatolactotroph cell line.The spatio-temporal organization of the signalling partners governs signalling fidelity and encodes the specificity of biological responses....