Functional significance of prop-1 gene expression in pituitary adenomas

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. As human Pit-1 is expressed considerably in pituitary adenomas, we studied human Prop-1 gene expression in pituitary adenomas. We also sequenced the Prop-1 cDNAs in pituitary adenomas. Human Prop-1 transcript was detected 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 GH-producing 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.