Endocrine Abstracts

Key learning points

• Adrenocortical tumors comprise frequent benign adenomas and rare aggressive carcinomas (ACC).

• cAMP/PKA pathway plays a central role in the pathogenesis of cortisol-producing adenomas - associated with Cushing syndrome, while molecular alterations in Wnt/β-catenin, Rb/p53 pathway and chromatin remodeling are frequent in ACCs.

• However, the pathogenic mechanisms underlying autonomous steroid secretion and adrenal tumourigenesis are in many aspects obscure.

• We aimed to gain a better understanding of these aspects utilizing single-cell transcriptomics (RNA-seq) that may provide fundamental insights in the architecture and functional consequences of cell subtypes within the human adrenal gland.

• This potentially paradigm-changing approach shall increase resolution of molecular events involved in the pathogenesis of autonomous steroid secretion and adrenocortical tumour development.