Related Experiment Videos
Opioid and tachykinin neuropeptides in prolactin-secreting human pituitary adenomas
X Zhu1, J T Robertson, H S Sacks
1Charles B. Stout Neuroscience Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Tennessee, Memphis 38163, USA.
Abstract:
Two opioid neuropeptides, methionine enkephalin (ME) and beta-endorphin (BE), and one tachykinin neuropeptide, substance P (SP), were quantified in 10 prolactin (PRL)-secreting human pituitary adenomas and in 10 control human pituitaries. Immunohistochemical techniques provided appropriate staining for PRL. Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was used to purify these three neuropeptides before their analysis, radioimmunoassay (RIA) was used for the quantification of SP-like immunoreactivity (SP-LI), and liquid secondary-ion mass spectrometry (LSIMS) was used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of ME and a tryptic peptide of BE. This study shows that, for 90% of the cases studied here (excluding one hypothyroidism case), the tachykinin A neuropeptide SP-LI level is decreased, the POMC peptide BE level is not altered, and the proenkephalin A neuropeptide ME level is increased in these PRL-secreting tumors.