Suliman M E, Royds J A, Baxter L, Timperley W R, Cullen D R, Jones T H
Department of Endocrinology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, University of Sheffield, UK.
Eur J Endocrinol. 1999 Feb;140(2):155-8. doi: 10.1530/eje.0.1400155.
Several cytokines have been shown to be expressed in normal and adenomatous pituitary tissue. Recently, interleukin-8 (IL-8) mRNA was identified by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR in each of a series of 17 pituitary tumours examined. We have investigated further the presence of IL-8 mRNA, using in situ hybridisation in two normal human anterior pituitary specimens and 25 human pituitary adenomas. IL-8 mRNA was not identified in either of the two normal pituitary specimens. Only three of the 25 adenomas were positive for IL-8 mRNA. In these three tumours, which included two null cell adenomas and one gonadotrophinoma, the majority of tumour cells (>90%) were positive for IL-8 mRNA. The remaining 22 adenomas were completely negative. There was no difference in tumour size or type between the IL-8 positive and the IL-8 negative tumours, and immunocytochemistry for von Willebrandt factor showed that the two groups were also similar in their degree of vascularisation. In conclusion, IL-8 mRNA was found in 12% of pituitary adenomas studied and was histologically identified within the tumour cells. In situ hybridisation is a more appropriate technique for assessing cytokine mRNA production by human pituitary tumours because RT-PCR may be too sensitive, identifying very small, possibly pathologically insignificant, quantities of mRNA that could be produced by supporting cells such as fibroblasts, endothelial cells or macrophages.
已有研究表明，几种细胞因子在正常垂体组织和垂体腺瘤组织中均有表达。最近，通过逆转录（RT）-PCR在一系列检测的17例垂体肿瘤中均发现了白细胞介素-8（IL-8）mRNA。我们使用原位杂交技术，对2例正常人类垂体前叶标本和25例人类垂体腺瘤进一步研究了IL-8 mRNA的存在情况。在2例正常垂体标本中均未检测到IL-8 mRNA。25例腺瘤中仅有3例IL-8 mRNA呈阳性。在这3例肿瘤中，包括2例无功能细胞腺瘤和1例促性腺激素瘤，大多数肿瘤细胞（>90%）IL-8 mRNA呈阳性。其余22例腺瘤均完全阴性。IL-8阳性肿瘤和IL-8阴性肿瘤在肿瘤大小或类型上无差异，血管性血友病因子免疫细胞化学显示两组在血管化程度上也相似。总之，在所研究的垂体腺瘤中，12%发现有IL-8 mRNA，且在肿瘤细胞内有组织学确认。原位杂交是评估人类垂体肿瘤细胞因子mRNA产生的更合适技术，因为RT-PCR可能过于敏感，会检测到非常少量、可能在病理上无意义的mRNA，这些mRNA可能由成纤维细胞、内皮细胞或巨噬细胞等支持细胞产生。
