Novel molecular aspects of pituitary adenomas

Ghrelin stimulates while somatostatin inhibits GH release and they thus serve as functional antagonists. We have compared their effects on cell proliferation. Ghrelin stimulates while somatostatin inhibits cell proliferation in most tissues and cell lines. Here we show that ghrelin and desoctanoyl ghrelin stimulate cell proliferation in rat pituitary cell line (GH3), and these effects could be inhibited with mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), tyrosine kinase and protein kinase C inhibitors. Somatostatin and its analogs negatively regulate the growth of pituitary cells, and we now show that they inhibit MAPK activation. We hypothesised that one of the mechanisms involved in the somatostatin effect is a stimulation of cell cycle inhibitor p27, as pituitary adenomas have decreased p27 peptide content. Both octreotide and a new somatostatin analog SOM230 treatment resulted in an upregulation of p27 protein levels in human somatotrophinoma cells. In summary, we suggest that ghrelin and somatostatin have opposite effects on somatotroph cells not just at the level of GH release but also in terms of cell proliferation. Ghrelin may play a role in pituitary tumorigenesis via an autocrine/paracrine pathway. Our results also suggest that the antiproliferative effect of somatostatin analogs octreotide and SOM230 involve the up-regulation of p27 and down-regulation of the MAPK pathway in human somatotrophinomas.