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Expression of serine proteases and metalloproteinases in human pituitary adenomas and anterior pituitary lobe tissue

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Abstract

Data on the dural invasiveness of pituitary adenomas have been correlated to the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (e.g. MMP-9). Serine proteases have not yet been investigated in human pituitary adenomas. In this study, paraffin-embedded material from 84 human pituitary adenomas (acromegaly n=18, Cushing's disease n=21, prolactinoma n=18, thyroid-stimulating hormone-secreting adenoma n=1, nonsecreting adenoma n=26) and 9 nontumourous anterior pituitary lobes (obtained from patients with prostate cancer) was immunohistochemically analysed for expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), uPA receptor (uPAR), tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Cavernous sinus invasion was determined by assessment of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging and intraoperative inspection (invasive n=50, noninvasive n=34). In pituitary adenomas, reactions were positive (diffuse expression) to MMP-2 (74% of cases), MMP-9 (49%), TIMP-2 (88%), uPA (89%), uPAR (90%), tPA (69%), and PAI-1 (87%). A weak expression of IL-6 was found in 12% of the adenomas. All reactions were positive (focal expression) in every sample of anterior lobe tissue, except for uPA (negative in 3 out of 9 cases), and IL-6 (faintly positive in 5 out of 8 cases). Adenomas showed remarkably greater expression of uPA than anterior lobe tissue (Chi-square P<0.05). Nonsecreting adenomas exhibited a stronger tendency towards overexpression of uPA in invasive tumours when compared to noninvasive adenomas (Chi-square P=0.053). We found no correlation of MMP-9 expression and tumour invasion. TIMP-2 was overexpressed in noninvasive as compared to invasive adenomas (Chi-square P<0.05). The interrelationship between MMPs and serine proteinases in pituitary adenomas remains to be elucidated. From our data, a correlation between IL-6 and an activation of MMP-9 cannot be proven. The uPA-system may, however, play a role in dural invasion of pituitary adenomas.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the help of Mrs.Ulrike Rumpf and Mrs. Petra Wolf for preparation of the immunohistological slides, Mrs. Antje Andreas and Mrs. Barbara Baack for the quantitative analysis by Triton extraction, and Dr. Birgit Jödicke for kindly revising the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Dr.-Horst-Schmidt-Kliniken, Ludwig-Erhard-Strasse 100, 65199, Wiesbaden, Germany

    Ulrich J. Knappe

  2. Institute of Neuropathology, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Christian Hagel

  3. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Björn W. Lisboa

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Dieter K. Lüdecke

  5. Department of Pathology, Marienkrankenhaus, Alfredstrasse 9, 22087, Hamburg, Germany

    Waldemar Wilczak & Wolfgang Saeger

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  1. Ulrich J. Knappe
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  2. Christian Hagel
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  4. Waldemar Wilczak
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  5. Dieter K. Lüdecke
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  6. Wolfgang Saeger
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Correspondence to Ulrich J. Knappe.

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Knappe, U.J., Hagel, C., Lisboa, B.W. et al. Expression of serine proteases and metalloproteinases in human pituitary adenomas and anterior pituitary lobe tissue. Acta Neuropathol 106, 471–478 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-003-0747-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-003-0747-5

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