Regulation of pituitary function by cytokines.
Research performed on the pituitary has proven that cytokines play an important role in maintaining pituitary physiology, affecting not only cell proliferation but also hormone secretion. The effects of cytokines can be autocrine or paracrine. This review gives an overview on the effects of the most studied cytokines in the pituitary. Special interest is focused on interleukin-6 (IL-6) because it has the distinctive characteristic of stimulating pituitary tumor cell growth, but has the opposite effect on normal pituitary cells. On the other hand, IL-6 is a cytokine of interest in the pituitary because recent work has shown that it promotes and maintains senescence in certain types of tumors. Given that the majority of pituitary adenomas are microadenomas and the fact that clinically inapparent pituitary tumors are quite common, senescence, perhaps mediated by IL-6, is an attractive mechanism for explaining the benign nature of pituitary tumors.
Haedo
Mariana R
MR
Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular, Departamento de Fisiología y Biología Molecular y Celular, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Gerez
Juan
J
Fuertes
Mariana
M
Giacomini
Damiana
D
Páez-Pereda
Marcelo
M
Labeur
Marta
M
Renner
Ulrich
U
Stalla
Gunter K
GK
Arzt
Eduardo
E
D000236:Adenoma / Q000209:etiology; D000818:Animals; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000502:physiology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology
D016207:Cytokines; D015850:Interleukin-6