The application of allelotype microsatellite polymorphisms and X chromosome
inactivation analysis in samples from women allow assessment of clonality,
Early studies showed that sporadic human pituitary tumors are benign adeno
mas of monoclonal origin, This implies that they arise from de novo somatic
mutation(s) within a single pituitary cell, However, the evidence obtained
from a number of studies indicate that morphology cannot predict clonality
, clonality within a given tumour may be multiple or single, multiple tumou
rs arising on the background of hyperplasia may be of identical or differin
g clonality, and multiple "sporadic" tumours within a gland may be of diffe
ring clonal origin, Thus, while the early available evidence indicated that
pituitary tumours appear largely monoclonal, it is simplistic to assume th
at this is inevitable and that these cannot be multiclonal in origin. These
observations would be entirely compatible with an initiating stimulus resu
lting in hyperplasia of specific cell types in the pituitary, which itself
gives rise to several distinct clones with variable potential to develop in
to tumours, Such stimuli might include hypothalamic trophic factors, intrap
ituitary growth factors, or pituitary specific oncogenes.