Chromatin remodeling and histone modifications in pituitary tumors

Pituitary tumorigenesis infrequently involves intragenic mutations of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes (Asa and Ezzat, 1998, 2002). Increasing evidence suggests that signals implicated in pituitary development may be relevant to neoplastic changes. Equally as important, accumulating evidence suggests that in contrast to other forms of solid neoplasia, pituitary tumors are frequently associated with epigenetic changes. In this review we discuss evolving models of epigenetic control and use members of the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGF) receptor family as examples of dysregulated signals in pituitary tumorigenesis (Asa and Ezzat, 2009).