Endocrine Abstracts

Mutations in the AIP gene have been linked to familial cases of pituitary adenomas (Vierimaa et al, 2006). Analysis of the protein support its role as a tumour suppressor since mutations cause a loss-of-function with reduced protein interactions and over-expression of wild-type (WT) AIP reduces cell proliferation (Leontiou et al, 2008). AIP interacts with a number of interesting proteins, among them are the phosphodiesterases, PDE4A5 and PDE2A, the G proteins, Gαq and G&#...

Wnt developmental pathways, have been implicated in a number of cancers. Wnt signaling proteins activate the B-catenin transcription factor which induces transcription of the oncogenes Cyclin D1 and Myc (Luo et al. 2007). Elston et al. (2008) found that Wnt inhibitors were down-regulated in pituitary tumours. Overexpression of Survivin, an inhibitor of apoptosis,correlates with poor prognosis and drug resistance (Altieri 2003, Ghosh et al. 20...