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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis Coupled with Mass Spectrometry Methods for an Analysis of Human Pituitary Adenoma Tissue Proteome
Published on: April 2, 2018
Activated AMP-protein kinase (pAMPK) is overexpressed in human somatotroph pituitary adenomas
Mariana Ferreira Bizzi1, Juliana Beaudette Drummond1, Sergio Veloso Brant Pinheiro2
1Departments of Internal Medicine of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 30130-100, Brazil.
Introduction:
AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) is an enzyme that acts as a metabolic sensor and regulates multiple pathways via phosphorylating proteins in metabolic and proliferative pathways. The aim of this work was to study the activated cellular AMPK (phosphorylated-AMPK at Thr172, pAMPK) levels in pituitary tumor samples from patients with sporadic and familial acromegaly, as well as in samples from normal human pituitary gland.
Methods:
We studied pituitary adenoma tissue from patients with sporadic somatotroph adenomas, familial acromegaly with heterozygote germline variants in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene (p.Q164*, p.R304* and p.F269_H275dup) and autopsy from normal pituitary glands without structural alterations.
Results:
Cellular levels of pAMPK were significantly higher in patients with sporadic acromegaly compared to normal pituitary glands (p < 0.0001). Tissues samples from patients with germline AIP mutations also showed higher cellular levels of pAMPK compared to normal pituitary glands. We did not observe a significant difference in cellular levels of pAMPK according to the cytokeratin (CAM5.2) pattern (sparsely or densely granulated) for tumor samples of sporadic acromegaly.
Conclusion:
Our data show, for the first time in human cells, an increase of cellular levels of pAMPK in sporadic somatotropinomas, regardless of cytokeratin pattern, as well as in GH-secreting adenomas from patients with germline AIP mutations.
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