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Interactions Cellulaires Neuroendocriniennes, UMR 6544-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de la Méditerranée, Institut Jean-Roche, Faculté de Médecine Nord, Marseille, France
¹ Service de Neurochirurgie, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire Timone, Marseille, France
² Département de Thérapie Génique et Thérapie Cellulaire-Etablissement Français du Sang, Marseille, France

(Requests for offprints should be addressed to A Barlier; Email: barlier.a{at}jean-roche.univ-mrs.fr)

Despite important advances in human therapeutics, no specific treatment for both non-functioning gonadotroph and resistant somatotroph adenomas is available. Gene transfer by viral vectors can be considered as a promising way to achieve a specific and efficient treatment. Here we show the possibility of efficient gene transfer in human pituitary adenoma cells in vitro using a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-type 1-derived vector. Using enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene as a marker placed under the phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) promoter, gonadotroph and somatotroph adenomas were transduced even with moderate viral loads. The expression started at day 2, reached a peak at day 5, and it was still present at day 90. For targeting somatotroph and gonadotroph adenomas, human growth hormone (GH) promoter (GH –481, +54 bp) and two fragments of the human glycoprotein hormone -subunit promoter (-subunit 1 –520, +33 bp, and -subunit 2 –907, +33 bp) were tested. In gonadotroph adenomas, the percentage of identified fluorescent cells and the fluorescence intensity analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting indicated that the strength of the -subunit 1 and -subunit 2 promoters were comparable to that of the PGK promoter. Primary cultures of rat pituitary cells showed that -subunit 1 is more selective to thyreotroph and gonadotroph phenotypes than -subunit 2. GH promoter activity appeared weak in somatotroph adenomas. The human GH enhancer did not increase the GH promoter activity at all but the human prolactin promoter (–250 bp) allowed 4-fold more fluorescent cells to be obtained than the GH promoter. Several cell lines appeared too permissive to test cell-specificity of pituitary promoters. However, on human non-pituitary cell cultures, the tested pituitary promoters seemed clearly selective to target endocrine pituitary phenotypes. This study gives a starting point for a gene-therapy program using lentiviral vectors to transfer therapeutic genes in human pituitary adenomas.

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