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Pituitary adenomas are common in the general population. Although most of them are sporadic, some occur in a familial setting. In familial pituitary adenoma patients it is common that no germline defects are found after screening of aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) and other genes known to underlie the condition, suggesting the existence of yet unknown predisposition genes. Recently, the RET proto-oncogene was found to be a novel in vivo interaction partner of AIP in the pituitary gland. Here, we have screened patients from 16 AIP mutation negative (AIPmut-) pituitary adenoma families for RET germline mutations to assess whether RET could play a role in pituitary adenoma predisposition, similar to AIP. We found five novel germline RET changes: one in RET Exon 4 and the rest in noncoding regions of RET. Two changes, c.1560*G > A and -1285 G > A, were segregated in affected family members. We also analyzed the RET region with enhancer element locator (EEL) to identify RET regulatory elements, and to see whether the changes resided in these. None of the variants mapped to the regions predicted by EEL. Expression of RET was examined in ten AIPmut- and seven AIP mutation positive (AIPmut+) somatotropinomas by immunohistochemistry, with a trend showing reduced expression in the latter (P = 0.05). We conclude that the RET variants are presumably not related to pituitary adenoma predisposition, although reduced RET expression may play a role in AIP-related genesis of somatotropinomas.

Original publication

DOI

10.1677/jme-10-0052

Type

Journal article

Journal

Journal of molecular endocrinology

Publication Date

02/2011

Volume

46

Pages

1 - 8

Addresses

Genome-Scale Biology Research Program, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.

Keywords

Humans, Adenoma, Pituitary Neoplasms, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Chromosome Mapping, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Base Sequence, Germ-Line Mutation, Adult, Aged, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Proto-Oncogene Mas