Long-term treatment with the dopamine agonist quinagolide of patients with clinically non-functioning pituitary adenoma.

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of prolonged treatment with the dopamine agonist quinagolide on serum gonadotropin and alpha-subunit concentrations and tumor volume in patients with clinically non-functioning pituitary adenomas (CNPA).

Design: Ten patients with CNPA were treated with quinagolide (0.3 mg daily).

Dissociation between the effects of somatostatin (SS) and octapeptide SS-analogs on hormone release in a small subgroup of pituitary- and islet cell tumors.

The effects of somatostatin (SS-14 and/or SS-28) and of the three octapeptide SS-analogs that are available for clinical use (octreotide, BIM-23014 and RC-160) on hormone release by primary cultures of 15 clinically nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFA), 7 prolactinomas, and 2 insulinomas were investigated. In the pituitary adenoma cultures, a comparison was made with the effects of the dopamine (DA) agonists bromocriptine and/or quinagolide. In 5 NFAs, 2 prolactinomas and 1 insulinoma somatostatin receptor (subtype) expression was determined by ligand binding studies and by in situ hybridization to detect sst1, sst2, and sst3 messenger RNAs (mRNAs).

Internalization of the radioiodinated somatostatin analog [125I-Tyr3]octreotide by mouse and human pituitary tumor cells: increase by unlabeled octreotide.

Recently, we developed a technique that allows the in vivo visualization in man of somatostatin receptor-positive neuroendocrine tumors after i.v. injection of [125I-Tyr3]octreotide or [111In-DTPA-D-Phe1]octreotide.

Relative potencies of the somatostatin analogs octreotide, BIM-23014, and RC-160 on the inhibition of hormone release by cultured human endocrine tumor cells and normal rat anterior pituitary cells.

In the present study we investigated the effects of the somatostatin (SS) analogs octreotide, RC-160, and BIM-23014 on GH release by cultured cells of human GH-secreting pituitary tumors, in normal rat anterior pituitary cells, and on gastrin release by cultured cells from a human gastrinoma. In all GH-secreting adenomas and in rat anterior pituitary cells, RC-160 was the most potent compound. RC-160 significantly inhibited GH-, PRL, and/or alpha-subunit release by human GH-secreting pituitary adenoma cells in concentrations as low as 10(-12)-10(-14) M, whereas at the same concentrations, octreotide and BIM-23014 did not inhibit or were significantly less effective in inhibiting GH release (P < 0.

Caffeine enhances the speed of the recovery of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis after chronic prednisolone administration in the rat.

Chronic administration of corticosteroids results in a suppression of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. The time course of the recovery of the HPA axis depends on the dose and duration of corticosteroid administration. We investigated the recovery of the HPA axis after 14 days of prednisolone administration to rats at a dose of 2.