Section of Specialized Endocrinology, Department of Endocrinology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
PLoS One. 2013 Jun 25;8(6):e66927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066927. Print 2013.
Somatostatin analogs (SA) have been established as the first line medical treatment for acromegaly, but following long-term treatment, SA normalizes GH and IGF-I levels in only 40-60% of patients. The epithelial marker E-cadherin plays a crucial role in the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and is associated with a poor response to SA treatment. We hypothesized that the characterization of transcripts regulated by SA in somatotroph adenomas with high and low E-cadherin expression may identify signaling pathways and mediators that can explain the poor response to SA treatment. We performed a microarray analysis of sixteen adenomas with different levels of E-cadherin and SA treatment to identify regulated transcripts. Candidate transcripts were further explored in vivo in sixty-five adenomas, and interactions between SA treatment and EMT progression on mRNA expression profiles and associations with clinical recovery were assessed. Finally, the effects of SA treatment on adenoma cells in vitro from acromegalic patients were determined. Microarray analysis of selected adenomas with differential E-cadherin expression, as a marker of EMT progression, identified 172 genes that displayed differential expression that was dependent on SA treatment. The validation of selected candidates in the entire cohort identified 9 transcripts that showed an interaction between E-cadherin expression and SA treatment. Further analysis of the impact of these genes suggests that attenuated RORC expression in somatotroph adenomas is associated with increased tumor size and a blunted clinical response. Our study indicates that attenuated RORC may be involved in the poor clinical response to SA treatment in patients with acromegaly.
生长抑素类似物 (SA) 已被确立为治疗肢端肥大症的一线药物,但长期治疗后,SA 仅能使 40-60%的患者 GH 和 IGF-I 水平恢复正常。上皮标志物 E-钙黏蛋白在上皮间质转化 (EMT) 中起着至关重要的作用,并且与对 SA 治疗的反应不良有关。我们假设,在 E-钙黏蛋白高表达和低表达的生长激素腺瘤中,对 SA 治疗有反应的转录本的特征可以确定信号通路和介质,从而解释对 SA 治疗反应不良的原因。我们对 16 例具有不同 E-钙黏蛋白水平和 SA 治疗的腺瘤进行了微阵列分析,以鉴定受调控的转录本。候选转录本在 65 例腺瘤中进行了进一步的体内研究,并评估了 SA 治疗与 EMT 进展对 mRNA 表达谱的相互作用以及与临床恢复的关联。最后,测定了体外来自肢端肥大症患者的腺瘤细胞对 SA 治疗的反应。对具有不同 E-钙黏蛋白表达的选定腺瘤(作为 EMT 进展的标志物)进行微阵列分析,确定了 172 个显示出与 SA 治疗相关的差异表达的基因。在整个队列中对选定候选基因的验证确定了 9 个转录本,这些转录本显示出 E-钙黏蛋白表达与 SA 治疗之间的相互作用。对这些基因的进一步分析表明,在生长激素腺瘤中 RORC 表达减弱与肿瘤体积增大和临床反应减弱有关。我们的研究表明,在肢端肥大症患者中,RORC 表达减弱可能与 SA 治疗的临床反应不良有关。