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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgical Oncology
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1423606

Differential Gene Expression and Pathway Analysis in Growth Hormone-Secreting Pituitary Tumors According to Granulation Pattern

Provisionally accepted
Kyungwon Kim Kyungwon Kim 1Yeongmin Kim Yeongmin Kim 2Se H. Kim Se H. Kim 1Ju Hyung Moon Ju Hyung Moon 1Eui Hyun Kim Eui Hyun Kim 1Eun Jig Lee Eun Jig Lee 1Chang-Myung Oh Chang-Myung Oh 2Cheol Ryong Ku Cheol Ryong Ku 1*
  • 1 College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated differential gene expression between granulation patterns in growth hormone (GH)-secreting pituitary tumors, aiming to elucidate novel transcriptomes that explain clinical variances in patients with acromegaly. Transcriptome analysis was conducted on 6 normal pituitary tissues and 15 GH-secreting pituitary tumors, including 9 densely granulated somatotroph tumors (DGSTs) and 6 sparsely granulated somatotroph tumors (SGSTs). We identified 3111 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in tumors compared to normal pituitaries, with 1117 DEGs unique to a specific granulation within tumors. SGST showed enrichment of neuronal development and acute inflammatory response pathways, along with a significant enhancement of JAK-STAT, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and MAPK signaling. The results suggest that granulation-specific gene expression may underpin diverse clinical presentations in acromegaly, highlighting the potential for further investigation into these transcriptomic variations and their roles in disease pathology, particularly the involvement of genes linked to neuronal development, inflammatory response, and JAK-STAT signaling in SGST.

    Keywords: growth hormone-secreting pituitary tumor, Acromegaly, sparsely granulated somatotroph adenoma, densely granulated somatotroph adenoma, Granulation patterns

    Received: 26 Apr 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kim, Kim, Kim, Moon, Kim, Lee, Oh and Ku. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Cheol Ryong Ku, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

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