MicroRNAs (miRs) are involved in the pathogenesis of several neoplasms; however, there are no data on their expression patterns and possible roles in adrenocortical tumors. Our objective was to study adrenocortical tumors by an integrative bioinformatics analysis involving miR and transcriptomics profiling, pathway analysis, and a novel, tissue-specific miR target prediction approach. Thirty-si...

BACKGROUND For the clinical management of adrenocortical neoplasms it is crucial to correctly distinguish between benign and malignant tumours. Even histomorphologically based scoring systems do not allow precise separation in single lesions, thus novel parameters are desired which offer a more accurate differentiation. The tremendous potential of microRNAs (miRNAs) as diagnostic biomarkers in ...

In estrogen-dependent rat adrenocortical carcinomas, thymidine kinase activity decreased during tumor regression following removal of estrogen from the host. The change in the kinase activity could be prevented by estrogen administration but not by the administration of growth hormone or adrenocorticotropic hormone. The alterations in kinase activity were not due to changes in the activity of c...

Adrenocortical carcinomas are rare tumors in adults. They can be hormonally active and detected by a hormonal excess, or be non-secretory tumors. In the latter case, they become symptomatic after a long period of growth, usually after they have already invaded the surrounding tissues. In these cases, multiple visceral resections are sometimes required in order to obtain a complete R0 resection....

AIMS Pathological diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma relies on several microscopic features commonly used in combination in different scoring systems that are sometimes subjective and/or time consuming. The aim was to investigate the impact of individual pathological parameters in the diagnosis and prognosis of adrenocortical carcinoma. METHODS AND RESULTS The series included 92 malignant ...

Comprehensive expression profiling of tumors using DNA microarrays has been used recently for molecular classification and biomarker discovery, as well as a tool to identify and investigate genes involved in tumorigenesis. Application of this approach to a cohort of benign and malignant adrenocortical tissues would be potentially informative in all of these aspects. In this study, we generated ...

Many diseases exist for which some numerical severity indicator can be measured. To identify the differentially expressed genes involved in the progression of such a condition, we propose a method that is more informative than traditional analyses because it accounts for severity measurements in addition to comparing diseased vs. control samples. Our approach incorporates the effects of disease...

Constitutive activating mutations of G protein-coupled receptors, such as that of TSH, have been implicated in the tumorigenesis of human endocrine neoplasms, such as thyroid adenomas. In a previous study we reported that constitutive activating point mutations of the ACTH receptor (ACTH-R) gene, a member of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily, were not present in hormone-secreting and n...