Endocrine Abstracts

Cushing Disease (CD) is a serious endocrine disorder that is primarily caused by an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma. Current treatments of CD present low efficiency in controlling the tumor mass growth and reducing the release of ACTH. This work investigates a possible new therapy for the treatment of pituitary tumors. Using a nanoparticle extract (nanoOse) of a typical Brazilian palm tree, we verify the in vitro effects of this extract on a ACTH-secreting mouse pituitary tumor cell line AtT20. AtT20 cells were maintained in a culture incubator at 37 °C in humidified air containing 5% CO₂ in a DMEM culture medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). AtT20 cells were treated with nanoOse at concentrations ranging from 100 to 300 μg/ml, and after that it was performed these experiments: morphological analysis by phase-contrast microscopy, cell viability MTT assay, cell proliferation assay using violet crystal, colony formation assay using the CFU method and cell necrosis index by LDH release assay. Experimental results show that even with the lowest concentration (100 μg/ml), nanoOse treatment was able to modify the morphological characteristics of AtT20 cells, to decrease 50% of cell viability and proliferation, to lose their clonogenic capacity and also to increase the cell necrosis index.These results indicate that nanoOse treatment negatively modulate AtT20 tumor cell progression, and suggest that this extract could be a new therapeutic strategy for the ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.