Endocrine Abstracts

β-catenin is thought to play an important, intrinsic role in early pituitary development by regulating adenohypophysis (anterior pituitary) transcription factor activity. Expression of β-catenin is detected in the adenohypophysis, rostral mesenchyme, and neural ectoderm, including the area that develops into the infundibulum and neurohypophysis, and nearby regions. The importance of β-catenin expression in the neural ectoderm and mesenchyme has not been addresse...

Adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma (ACP) is an epithelial intracranial lesion arising from Rathke’s pouch with a median age at diagnosis of 8 years. ACP is the third most common paediatric brain tumour, accounting for approximately 5–13% of brain tumours, and the commonest pituitary tumour among children. Although histologically benign, ACP often behaves aggressively with invasion of the hypothalamus and visual pathways. Consequences associated with both the tumour a...

The anterior pituitary gland displays considerable plasticity with a proliferative response to oestrogen in a number of different situations including pregnancy. The nature of pituitary remodelling to this physiological demand is not clear.Using microarray analysis we found that oestrogen treatment of the rat in vivo increased expression of Wnt4 mRNA in adult rat pituitary tissue. Dual immunofluorescence analysis showed that this Wnt4 expression w...