The reasons for the increase of pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG) transcripts in about 90% of pituitary adenomas are still not fully understood, although upregulation by basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been discussed as a potential cause.
The product of the pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG) inhibits chromatid separation, which is considered to promote chromosome instability, especially in the absence of the p53 gene product, and also induces basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) production.
As pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG) induces basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), we tested angiogenesis induced by conditioned medium (CM) derived from NIH-3T3 transfectants overexpressing wild-type human PTTG (WT-hPTTG-CM).