It should be noted that the PRL response to TRH in prolactinoma or an abnormal response of gonadotropin and/or its subunits to TRH in gonadotroph cell adenomas is considered to be due to a mechanism other than direct TRH action in adenoma cells.
The patient had a low-normal TRH stimulation test and an unmeasurable alpha-glycoprotein subunit level; however, a pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an adenoma.
Endocrinological identification of silent somatotroph adenomas in combination with paradoxical responses of GH in TRH or GnRH provocation tests may elucidate the increasing number of silent somatotroph adenomas that have been regarded as mammotroph or clinically inactive adenomas.
Genomic DNA was extracted from adenoma and lymphocyte samples and the entire coding region of the TRH receptor was amplified using 5 overlapping pairs of PCR primers.
Partial TRH receptor cDNA from a human GH producing adenoma cDNA library was amplified by PCR under low stringency conditions using primers encoding the transmembrane domains III and VI of pituitary TRH receptor cDNA.
The sequence and functioning analyses showed the same expression of TRH-R mRNA in the pituitary adenomas as that in the normal pituitaries, indicating that 1) some adenomas of patients with acromegaly express an intact and functional TRH-R, and that 2) the paradoxical response of GH secretion to TRH found in the patients might be a direct effect of TRH on TRH-R expressed in the adenoma.