Abstract:

Objective   To investigate the effect of TSP-1 on the growth of primary somatotroph adenoma cells and expression of TGF-β1 in somatotroph adenoma cells in vitro. Methods    Human somatotroph adenoma (12 cases) cells were cultured in vitro, and the growth-inhibiting rate was obtained by MTT. Flow cytometry was applied to evaluate the apoptosis rate in the cultured cells, and RT-PCR was applied to determine TGF-β1 mRNA expression in somatotroph adenoma cells after treated with TSP-1. Results   The growth of primary somatotroph adenoma cells was significantly inhibited by TSP-1 with concentration and time dependence. Even low concentration of TSP-1  (1-5nmol/L) inhibited cell growth in vitro after 48h. The data of flow cytometry suggested that TSP-1 induced somatotroph adenoma cell apoptosis in vitro and the effect was positively related with concentrations and time. No significant down-regulation of TGF-β1 mRNA expression was induced by low concentration of TSP-1 at any acting time, compared with the negative control group (P>0.05). Conclusion     TSP-1 could induce apoptosis and inhibit primary somatotroph adenoma cell proliferation in vitro, and the effect might be positively related with concentrations and time. In vitro, TSP-1 in low or medium concentration could not regulate expression of TGF-β1.

Key words:  Somatotroph adenomas; Primary cell culture; Apoptosis; In vitro study