SFEBES2021 Symposia Characterising the cortex to improve clinical care (3 abstracts)
Institute of Metabolism and System Research, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Key learning points
Adrenocortical tumors comprise frequent benign adenomas and rare aggressive carcinomas (ACC).
cAMP/PKA pathway plays a central role in the pathogenesis of cortisol-producing adenomas - associated with Cushing syndrome, while molecular alterations in Wnt/β-catenin, Rb/p53 pathway and chromatin remodeling are frequent in ACCs.
However, the pathogenic mechanisms underlying autonomous steroid secretion and adrenal tumourigenesis are in many aspects obscure.
We aimed to gain a better understanding of these aspects utilizing single-cell transcriptomics (RNA-seq) that may provide fundamental insights in the architecture and functional consequences of cell subtypes within the human adrenal gland.
This potentially paradigm-changing approach shall increase resolution of molecular events involved in the pathogenesis of autonomous steroid secretion and adrenocortical tumour development.