Differential expression of the neural cell adhesion molecule NCAM 140 in human pituitary tumors

FEBS Letters

Langley, Keith¹  Aletsee-Ufrecht, Maria C.²  Gratzl, Manfred²  Gratzl, Otmar³ 

[1] INSERM U44, Centre de Neurochimie du CNRS, 5 rue Biaise Pascal, F-67084 Strasbourg, France;Abteilung Anatomie und Zellbiologie der Universität Ulm, Alben-Einstein-Allee 11, D-7900 Ulm, FRG;Neurochirurgische Universitätsklinik, Kantonsspital, Spitalstraβe 21, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland

关键词: Pituitary adenoma;    Tumor marker;    Neuron specific enolase;    Synaptophysin;    Neural cell adhesion molecule;   

DOI  :  10.1016/0014-5793(90)80445-O

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

We have analyzed the expression of the intracellular marker protein neuron specific enolase (NSE), synaptophysin (SYN) and of the cell surface marker NCAM (neural cell adhesion molecule) in both normal human hypophysis and in pituitary adenomas in order to explore their potential use as diagnostic tools. All adenomas (4 prolactinomas, 3 growth hormone (GH) producing adenomas and 4 inactive adenomas) showed SYN and NSE immunoreactivity on tissue sections and this was confirmed by immunoblots. NCAM 140 (an isoform of NCAM with molecular mass 140 kDa) was detected by immunoblotting in normal human adenohypophysis, in all GH adenomas, and in three out of four inactive adenomas, but not in prolactinomas. Using highly sensitive techniques, NCAM immunoreactivity was observed by electron microscopy in all adenomas. These data indicate that NCAM 140 is a constituent of the cell surface of endocrine cells in both normal human adenohypophysis and its tumors. Since prolactinomas express very low levels of NCAM 140 compared to other hypophyseal tumors its virtual absence could be used for differential diagnosis. A combined analysis of NCAM, SYN and NSE could be useful to characterize inactive adenomas which are not immunoreactive for pituitary hormones and which may contain no or only low levels of the alpha chain of the glycoprotein hormones.

【 授权许可】

Unknown