Architects of Pituitary Tumour Growth

SABATINO MARÍA EUGENIA; DE PAUL ANA LUCÍA; GRONDONA EZEQUIEL

Frontiers in Endocrinology

Lausanne : Frontiers Research Foundation]

Año: 2022 vol. 13

1664-2392

The pituitary is a master gland responsible for the modulation of critical endocrine functions. Pituitary tumours (PTs) display a considerable prevalence of 1/1106, frequently observed as benign solid tumours. PTs still represent a cause of important morbidity, due to hormonal systemic deregulation and the surgical, radiological or chronic treatment requirement for illness management. The apparent scarceness, uncommon behaviour and molecular features of PTs imply a relatively slow improvement in depicting their pathogenesis. An appropriate interpretation of different phenotypes or cellular outcomes during tumour growth is desirable, since cytological characterization still remains the main option for prognosis elucidation. Evidence accumulated about pituitary tumorigenesis reveals it involves further than the rate of cell multiplication and loss, and depends on more than a univocal abnormality factor in a central proliferation pathway. PTs can display intrinsic heterogeneity and cell subpopulations with diverse biological, genetic and epigenetic particularities, including tumorigenic potential. Hence, PT growth understanding requires new approaches and systematization of the available data. The role of cell death programs, autophagy, stem cells, cellular senescence, mitochondrial function metabolic reprogramming are still emerging fields in pituitary research. We envisage that through the combination of molecular, genetic and epigenetic data, together with morphological, biochemical, physiological and metabolically knowledge on pituitary neoplastic potential accumulated in the recent decades, tumour classification schemes will become more enlightened regarding tumour origin, behaviour and plausible clinical results.