Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.49 (reverse transcriptase)
 31,746 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study examined the expression of human growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRH-R) mRNA in both non-neoplastic pituitary tissues and pituitary adenomas by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH). RT-PCR analysis showed that all of the non-neoplastic pituitaries and all GH-producing adenomas, one prolactinoma and one third of the non-functioning adenomas expressed GHRH-R mRNA. ISH demonstrated that all of GH-producing adenomas and two prolactinomas expressed GHRH-R mRNA. The expression of GHRH-R mRNA in GH-producing adenomas was greater than that in the other adenomas by RT-PCR and ISH. GHRH-R mRNA detected by ISH was observed only in GH cells from the pituitary gland of a young girl. In pituitary adenomas, a diffuse signal was observed in the cytoplasm of all of the GH-producing adenomas and in two prolactinomas. Expression of GHRH-R mRNA was not seen in normal prolactin cells, or in any adenomas other than GH-producing adenomas and a few prolactinomas. These results suggest that GHRH-R mRNA plays a role mainly in the function of GH-producing adenomas but may also play a role in function of some prolactinomas.
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PMID:Significance of growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor mRNA in non-neoplastic pituitary and pituitary adenomas: a study by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. 1035 39

A cDNA membrane array displaying 1183 probes was used to detect hypothalamic and pituitary changes in gene expression accompanying ageing and age-associated pituitary macroadenomas. Four groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats (3-, 15-, 24-month-old and 24-month-old with prolactinoma) were compared in two independent hybridizations. cDNA array data were confirmed and completed by comparative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction on selected genes. The expression of 454 and 116 mRNAs was detected in hypothalamus and pituitary, respectively. Growth hormone (GH) mRNA alone represented 85% of total gene expression in the gland of young rats, and other pituitary hormone transcripts 2.8%, while melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) mRNA, the most expressed neuropeptide transcript involved in neuroendocrine regulation, accounted for only 0.8% of total hypothalamic transcripts. The proportion of genes modified in the hypothalamus and pituitary was rather modest: 1.5% and 5.2%, respectively, for ageing per se, and 1.1% and 5.2% for age-associated macroprolactinomas. Among pituitary specific RNAs, GH mRNA expression was notably decreased with age. At the hypothalamic level, expression of genes directly involved in GH regulation, such as somatostatin and growth hormone-releasing hormone, was not altered, while neuropeptide transcripts involved in feeding behaviour [orexin/hypocretin, MCH, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)] were significantly altered. In addition, a few ubiquitous transcripts (hnRNP-K, PFKm, CCND 2, calponin and set) were differently affected in both tissues. Modifications in hypothalamic orexigenic (orexin, MCH) and anorexigenic (POMC, CART) gene expression are in keeping with an age-associated decrease in energy consumption but a higher one in the presence of macroprolactinomas.
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PMID:Age-associated changes in hypothalamic and pituitary neuroendocrine gene expression in the rat. 1271 10

To study pituitary tumor formation, we used a rat pituitary tumor cell line, MtT/E, which was derived from an estrogen-induced rat prolactinoma. MtT/E cells are known not to produce any pituitary hormone; however, they do produce the Pit-1 protein, which is known to be a common transcription factor in thyrotropes, somatotropes, and mammotropes. Although MtT/E is a clonal cell line, it exhibits two distinct phenotypes, fibroblastic (F-) and epithelial (E-) cells. We obtained subclonal cell lines from MtT/E cells with characters similar to those of F- and E-cells and called them MtT/E-G1 and MtT/E-B3, respectively. To examine tumor formation by these cells, we implanted them into female Fischer rats. One month later, typical pituitary tumors had appeared in MtT/E-B3-implanted rats; however, tumor formation by MtT/E-G1 was delayed. Interestingly, the tumors formed by MtT/E-B3 cells were intensely vascularized. To examine changes in tumor cell morphology, we performed primary culture and found that spindle-shaped cells appeared. These spindle-shaped cells were immunopositive for the Pit-1 protein, which suggests that they originated from MtT/E-B3 cells. Interestingly, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction showed that both tumors and the cells obtained in primary culture expressed basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). By contrast, the original MtT/E-B3 cells did not express bFGF. These results suggested that MtT/E-B3 cells show a change in phenotype during tumor formation; that is, epithelial-type cells change into bFGFexpressing fibroblastic cells. These phenomena, especially the appearance of bFGFexpressing cells in tumor tissue, may explain the extensive angiogenesis in the tumors formed by MtT/E-B3 cells.
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PMID:Change in expression of basic fibroblast growth factor mRNA in a pituitary tumor clonal cell line. 1285 5