Characterization of Prophet of Pit-1 gene expression in normal pituitary and pituitary adenomas in humans

Prophet of Pit-1 (Prop-1), which is a paired-like homeodomain transcription factor, is capable of binding to sites in an early enhancer of the Pit-1 gene and regulating its expression. According to a previous report, Prop-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) is expressed in the developing pituitary gland before Pit-1 mRNA expression and maximum expression are observed at e 12.0. After e 14.5, Prop-1 mRNA expression rapidly decreases, and only trace amounts of mRNA are detectable in adult mouse pituitary. Human Pit-1 is expressed considerably, not only in normal adult pituitary but also in pituitary adenomas, so we studied human Prop-1 gene expression in adult pituitary and pituitary adenomas. We also cloned human Prop-1 complementary DNA (cDNA) and sequenced the Prop-1 cDNAs in pituitary adenomas. The amino acid sequence of human Prop-1 cDNA that we cloned was identical to that of the previously reported sequence, except Thr substituted at codon 142 instead of Ala. This amino acid substitution is considered to be a polymorphism because it did not alter transcriptional activity, and 7 of 28 alleles were Ala. Human Prop-1 transcript was detected in normal adult pituitary, by Northern blot analysis, and in all pituitary adenomas examined by RT-PCR analysis. The expression of human Prop-1 in pituitary adenomas was confirmed by in situ hybridization in one of the somatotroph adenomas. The sequence analysis of human Prop-1 cDNAs in these pituitary adenomas revealed that there were no mutations, except 5 silent nucleic acid substitutions, suggesting that mutations of Prop-1 gene do not represent a frequent mechanism of human pituitary tumorigenesis.