Evaluation of survivin splice variants in pituitary tumors

• Published in: Pituitary Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 410 - 416
• Main Authors: Waligórska-Stachura, Joanna, Andrusiewicz, Mirosław, Sawicka-Gutaj, Nadia, Kubiczak, Marta, Jankowska, Anna, Liebert, Włodzimierz, Czarnywojtek, Agata, Waśko, Ryszard, Blanco-Gangoo, Al Ricardo, Ruchała, Marek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ACTH-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma - genetics; ACTH-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma - pathology; Adenoma - genetics; Adenoma - pathology; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Alternative Splicing; Case-Control Studies; Endocrinology; Female; Growth Hormone-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma - genetics; Growth Hormone-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma - pathology; Human Physiology; Humans; Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins - genetics; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Neoplasm Staging; Pituitary Neoplasms - genetics; Pituitary Neoplasms - pathology; Prolactinoma - genetics; Prolactinoma - pathology; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - genetics; Tumor Burden; Survivin; RT-qPCR; Pituitary tumors; Survivin splice variants
• ISSN: 1386-341X; 1573-7403
• DOI: 10.1007/s11102-014-0590-9

Purpose Survivin is an apoptosis inhibitor, expressed in almost all types of human malignancies, but rarely in differentiated normal tissues. Recently, survivin gene splice variants with different anti-apoptotic activities have been reported. The current study was undertaken to examine the expression of survivin and its splice variants ∆Ex3 and 2β in pituitary tumors, and to correlate the amount of particular transcripts with clinical staging in pituitary adenomas. Quantitative detection of survivin and its splice variants ∆Ex3 and 2β transcripts in non-cancerous pituitary tissues (n = 12) and different types of pituitary tumor (n = 50). Methods Samples were collected from 50 pituitary tumors including 26 non-functional tumors, 21 GH-secreting tumors, 2 PRL-secreting tumors and 1 ACTH-secreting tumor. 12 normal pituitary glands received after autopsy served as a control of the study. 29 thyroid cancers tissues were used as a positive control. The RT-qPCR with TaqMan hydrolysis probes were used to determine the expression of analyzed splice variants of survivin. Results The obtained data showed that both survivin and its splice variants were expressed in different types of pituitary adenoma as well as in normal pituitary tissue. However, the level of its expression was similar in all studied cases. Patient age negatively correlated with tumor invasiveness. Moreover, our study showed a tendency for negative correlation between patient age and tumor diameter. Conclusions No significant differences between survivin and its splice variants ∆Ex3 and 2β expression in pituitary tumors and in normal pituitary glands as well as in invasive and in non-invasive tumors were found, suggesting that survivin does not play a significant role in pituitary tumorigenesis.