Of the 34 pituitary adenomas studied, Ptx-1 expression was reduced by more than 50% compared to that of the housekeeping gene human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in the 6 corticotroph adenomas, which also had significantly reduced alpha-subunit production (all 6 tumors secreting < or =0.5 ng/24 h).
However, using a semiquantitative PCR approach coamplifying the house-keeping gene GAPDH we detected a reduced expression of CRF-BP mRNA in ACTH-secreting pituitary adenomas when compared with normal pituitaries.