Endocrine Abstracts

A variety of endocrine and metabolic signals regulate pituitary cell function acting through the hypothalamus-pituitary neuroendocrine axes or directly at the pituitary level. The underlying intracellular transduction mechanisms in pituitary cells are still debated. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) functions as a cellular sensor of low energy stores in all mammalian cells and promotes adaptive changes in response to calorie restriction. It is also regarded as a target for t...

We investigated the direct effects of the somatostatin analog octreotide on hallmarks of autophagy and of cell viability and metabolic activity in rat pituitary tumor cells (GH1 and GH3 cells). The Western blot analysis of cell lysates suggested that octreotide (100 nM) treatment could induce changes in hallmarks related to autophagy activation (increased LC3-I protein lipidation) and to enhanced autophagic flux (SQSTM1/p62 protein downregulation) in pituitary tumor cells in d...