Analysis of human pituitary tumors by in situ hybridization

A procedure for performing in situ hybridization histochemistry (ISH) on frozen and paraffin sections of human pituitary tissues is described. The use of oligonucleotide probes for hPRL and hGH labeled with 35S allowed detection of a specific messenger RNA in frozen and paraffin sections. This technique can be combined with immunochemistry to localize both the gene product and the hormone(s) produced by specific cells and should be very helpful in the characterization of normal and neoplastic human pituitary cells.