Endocrine Abstracts

The pituitary gland generates highly ordered hormone pulses to control basic body functions such as growth, fertility, and lactation. Using an approach combining transgenic mice models with cell-specific fluorescent tags (GH-GFP, PRL-DsRed, POMC-GFP, LH-Cerulean…) and functional optical imaging (pituitary-scale 2-photon excitation microscopy, cellular in vivo imaging), we recently unveiled that most, if not all pituitary cell types are much more organized than we ...

Hormone release by pituitary cell types is primarily regulated by stimulatory and inhibitory factors secreted by the hypothalamus. In turn, factors produced by the target organs controlled by the pituitary exert a feedback regulation on the corresponding pituitary cells. However, recent data indicate that, besides these factors, other mechanisms operate to finely tune pituitary function. These include both novel peripheral regulatory factors as well as intrinsic cellular eleme...

Sporadic and familial pituitary adenomas are being recognised and diagnosed with increasing frequency due to better diagnostic techniques and improving awareness.Recently, a number of important steps have been taken to clarify the molecular pathological events leading to familial pituitary tumorigenesis, with the recognition of the tumour suppressor genes p27 and AIP as causes of familial pituitary tumours in addition to previously-establis...

Somatostatin acts as an inhibitor of hormonal secretion and cell proliferation by acting through 5 somatostatin receptors subtypes (sst1–5). Coupling with Gi/o proteins is associated with effects on various transduction pathways, as adenylate cyclase inhibition or phosphatases activation. Dopamine receptor subtype 2 (D2DR) acts through coupling with similar G-proteins and transduction pathways. Sst, mostly sst2 and sst5, are coexpressed with D2DR in many neuroendocrine no...