Growth Suppression of Mouse Pituitary Corticotroph Tumor AtT20 Cells by Curcumin: a Model for Treating Cushing's Disease

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2010 Apr 21

PMID 20405005

Citations 9

Authors

Madhavi Latha Yadav Bangaru

Jeffrey Woodliff

Hershel Raff

Sanjay Kansra

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Pituitary corticotroph tumors secrete excess adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) resulting in Cushing's disease (CD). Standard treatment includes surgery and, if not successful, radiotherapy, both of which have undesirable side effects and frequent recurrence of the tumor. Pharmacotherapy using PPARgamma agonists, dopamine receptor agonists, retinoic acid or somatostatin analogs is still experimental. Curcumin, a commonly used food additive in South Asian cooking, has potent growth inhibitory effects on cell proliferation. Our laboratory recently demonstrated that curcumin inhibited growth and induced apoptosis in prolactin- and growth hormone-producing tumor cells. Subsequently, Schaaf et.al. confirmed our findings and also showed the in vivo effectiveness of curcumin to suppress pituitary tumorigenesis. However the molecular mechanism that mediate this effect of curcumin are still unknown.

Principal Findings: Using the mouse corticotroph tumor cells, AtT20 cells, we report that curcumin had a robust, irreversible inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and clonogenic property. The curcumin-induced growth inhibition was accompanied by decreased NFkappaB activity. Further, curcumin down-regulated the pro-survival protein Bcl-xL, depolarized the mitochondrial membrane, increased PARP cleavage, which led to apoptotic cell death. Finally, curcumin had a concentration-dependent suppressive effect on ACTH secretion from AtT20 cells.

Conclusion: The ability of curcumin to inhibit NFkappaB and induce apoptosis in pituitary corticotroph tumor cells leads us to propose developing it as a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of CD.

Citing Articles

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Wu H, Xu J, Zhao W, Lv W, Feng Z, Heng L Antioxidants (Basel). 2025; 13(12.

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Approaches based on natural products and miRNAs in pituitary adenomas: unveiling therapeutic intervention.

Aboregela A Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2024; 398(1):69-88.

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AT-101 acts as anti-proliferative and hormone suppressive agent in mouse pituitary corticotroph tumor cells.

Yurekli B, Karaca B, Kisim A, Bozkurt E, Atmaca H, Cetinkalp S J Endocrinol Invest. 2017; 41(2):233-240.

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Cushing's syndrome: from physiological principles to diagnosis and clinical care.

Raff H, Carroll T J Physiol. 2014; 593(3):493-506.

PMID: 25480800 PMC: 4324701. DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.282871.

Inhibition of heat shock protein 90 decreases ACTH production and cell proliferation in AtT-20 cells.

Sugiyama A, Kageyama K, Murasawa S, Ishigame N, Niioka K, Daimon M Pituitary. 2014; 18(4):542-53.

PMID: 25280813 DOI: 10.1007/s11102-014-0607-4.

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