Disease relevance of Pituitary Gland

• Five adenomas associated with Nelson's syndrome contained increased amounts of cholecystokinin, the concentrations being extremely high in two: 8281 and 13,453 pmol per gram as compared with less than 30 pmol per gram in normal pituitary glands [1].
• We have monitored the changes in circulating hormone levels from the ovary and pituitary gland in premenopausal (41-47 years old) women with stage I or II breast cancer during adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen as the single agent for 4-72 months following a mastectomy [2].
• To assess whether deregulated E2F activity is sufficient to induce pituitary tumors, we generated transgenic mice expressing an inducible E2F3 protein in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary gland [3].
• Deregulated E2F activity induces hyperplasia and senescence-like features in the mouse pituitary gland [3].
• Role of the hypophysis in erythropoietin production during hypoxia [4].

Psychiatry related information on Pituitary Gland

• Inexperienced, hypophysectomized female rats treated with steroids were used in experiments to investigate the roles of the pituitary gland and prolactin in the expression of maternal behavior [5].
• METHODS: We measured the volumes of the pituitary gland in 23 patients with bipolar disorder (mean +/- s.d. = 34.3 +/- 9.9 years) and 13 patients with unipolar disorder (41.2 +/- 9.6 years), and 34 healthy control subjects (36.6 +/- 9.6 years) using 1.5 mm thick T1-weighted coronal 1.5 T MRI images [6].
• However, exposure of hypophyses to CORT for a critical period of time was a prerequisite for such a relationship to develop [7].
• The present study used a monoclonal antibody against EGFR to examine its expression in pituitary gland, scalp, abdominal skin and brain of 29 patients with and without various dementias and neurological deficits, as well as normal aged controls [8].
• Levels of mercury (Hg), selenium (Se), iron (Fe), rubidium (Rb), and zinc (Zn) were measured in the pituitary gland to assess the possibility of a potential difference in the environmental Hg exposure of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and control subjects and levels of other elements of interest in AD [9].

High impact information on Pituitary Gland

• Finally, although it is well known that dopamine of hypothalamic origin provides inhibitory control over the secretion of prolactin, other factors within the brain, pituitary gland, and peripheral organs have been shown to inhibit or stimulate prolactin secretion as well [10].
• Atrial natriuretic peptide in brain and pituitary gland [11].
• The cholecystokinin peptides from the tumors were smaller and less sulfated than cholecystokinin from normal pituitary glands [1].
• Here we report the cloning of mouse and rat complementary DNAs encoding a new member of the seven-transmembrane-helix, G-protein-coupled receptor family restricted to the pituitary gland, which mediates increases in intracellular cAMP and cAMP-dependent gene transcription in response to GRF [12].
• Intriguingly, during ontogeny, pit-1 transcripts are observed in the rat neural tube and neural plate (embryonic day 10-11) and disappear thereafter (day 13), only to reappear exclusively in the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland (day 15) just before activation of prolactin and growth hormone [13].

Chemical compound and disease context of Pituitary Gland

• The evidence indicates (a) that the growth of the lymphoma in Nb rats was stimulated by factor(s) in the peripheral blood, the levels of which were subject to control by the pituitary, and (b) that estrogen stimulated lymphoma growth indirectly, through the pituitary gland [14].
• In contrast to the pituitary gland, which contained 60 to 70% of the total carbonic anhydrase in the particulate subcellular fraction, three hormone-secreting pituitary tumors were devoid of the particulate (Triton X-100-solubilized)enzyme activity [15].
• Diethylstilbestrol (DES) treatment of weanling F344 female rats resulted in enlarged pituitary glands and diffuse pituitary prolactin (PRL) cell hyperplasia in all animals after 9 and 12 weeks of treatment [16].
• Hyperplastic pituitary gland, high serum glycoprotein hormone alpha-subunit, and variable circulating thyrotropin (TSH) levels as hallmark of central hypothyroidism due to mutations of the TSH beta gene [17].
• A 29-yr-old woman presented with acromegaly, pituitary gland enlargement, and an isolated pulmonary mass of 3.3 cm in diameter, which displayed a very high tracer uptake after OctreoScan [18].

Biological context of Pituitary Gland

• The presence of a pituitary-specific form of the thyroid hormone receptor that may be selectively regulated by thyroid hormone could be important for the differential regulation of gene expression by T3 in the pituitary gland [19].
• This clearance mechanism protects the maternal pituitary gland from elevated plasma CRF levels found during the third trimester of human pregnancy [20].
• The mean ocntent of PRL in the pituitary gland increased sharply from 14.8 plus or minus 4.6 ng at 15-19 wk to 405 plus or minus 142 ng at 20-24 wk and 542 plus or minus ng at 25-29 wk gestation [21].
• The pattern of CRF receptor mRNA expression in the brain, pituitary gland, and other organs corresponds precisely to that predicted for the classic CRF receptor, suggesting that this receptor serves to mediate the known biological effects of CRF on behavior, stress, and homeostasis [22].
• Regulation of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by Zac1, a novel zinc finger protein expressed in the pituitary gland and the brain [23].

Anatomical context of Pituitary Gland

• Although the principal function of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) is to stimulate the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), there is evidence that agonistic analogues of GnRH directly inhibit steroidogenesis in the testis and ovary [24].
• Such a dissociation suggests that either differential release of vasopressin and CRF can occur from a single population of nerve endings, or there are fibres in the pituitary-stalk ME which release vasopressin but not CRF [25].
• Thus, vasopressin may exert differential regulatory effects on thyroid-stimulating hormone secretion in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland [26].
• Effect of 4,4'-oxydianiline on the thyroid and pituitary glands of F344 rats: a morphologic study with the use of the immunoperoxidase method [27].
• The functional characteristics of a nonacidic, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate- and thapsigargin-insensitive Ca2+ pool have been characterized in mammalian cells derived from the rat pituitary gland (GH3, GC, and GH3B6), the adrenal tissue (PC12), and mast cells (RBL-1) [28].

Associations of Pituitary Gland with chemical compounds

• The propranolol-sensitive response is largely prevented by extirpation of the neurointermediate lobe of the pituitary gland but is unaffected by dexamethasone, which inhibits peptide secretion from the corticotroph cells of the anterior lobe [29].
• Concentrations of cortisol and insulin-like growth factor in blood were normal, as was the level of growth hormone in the pituitary gland [30].
• Intraperitoneal injection of monosodium glutamate in neonatal rates resulted in a 90 percent loss of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone in hypothalamic and extrahypothalamic areas of the brain, whereas the amount of hormone in the pituitary gland did not change [31].
• Furthermore, estradiol selectively inhibits FSH secretion by a direct action on the pituitary gland [32].
• Proopiomelanocortin (POMC), the precursor for melanotropic, corticotropic, and opioid peptides such as alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha MSH), ACTH, and other related peptides, was originally identified as a product of the pituitary gland [33].

Gene context of Pituitary Gland

• AA-NAT mRNA was found unexpectedly in the pituitary gland and in some brain regions [34].
• During the development of the pituitary gland, two highly related paired-like homeodomain factors, a repressor, Hesx1/Rpx and an activator, Prop-1, are expressed in sequential, overlapping temporal patterns [35].
• While loss of pRB causes retinoblastoma in humans and pituitary gland tumors in mice, tumorigenesis in other tissues may be suppressed by p107 and p130 [36].
• Tumors arise from the intermediate lobe cells of the pituitary gland in p27-/- mice, as well as in Rb+/- mice after loss of the remaining wild-type allele of Rb [37].
• Pax6 is essential for establishing ventral-dorsal cell boundaries in pituitary gland development [38].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Pituitary Gland

• Immunocytochemistry was used to demonstrate the presence of immunoreactive glucocorticoid receptor in the intermediate lobe after pituitary stalk transection, neurointermediate lobe grafts to kidney capsule, or monolayer culture of neurointermediate pituitary cells [39].
• Of 287 patients having one or more autoimmune endocrine diseases, sera from 19 reacted with pituitary glands obtained at hypophysectomy for breast cancer [40].
• In situ hybridizations also revealed high levels of DBI mRNA in the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, liver, and germinal center of the white pulp of spleen, all tissues that are rich in peripheral benzodiazepine binding sites [41].
• We have used Northern blotting and in situ hybridization to RNA in tissue sections to describe the presence, anatomical localization, and regulation of VP and oxytocin RNAs in the pituitary gland itself [42].
• Immunoelectron microscopy showed the presence of AVP immunoreactivity in a subpopulation of pituicytes 7 and 10 days after pituitary stalk transection in salt-loaded animals, when almost all AVP fibers had disappeared from the NL [43].

References