Combined pituitary hormone deficiency caused by compound heterozygosity for two novel mutations in the POU domain of the Pit1/POU1F1 gene

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Apr;86(4):1545-50. doi: 10.1210/jcem.86.4.7371.

Abstract

The POU homeodomain containing transcriptional activator POU1F1, formerly called Pit1 or GHF-1, is required for the embryological determination and postnatal secretory function of the GH-, PRL-, and TSH-producing cells in the anterior pituitary. Several mutations in the gene encoding POU1F1 have been described, resulting in a syndrome of combined pituitary hormone deficiency involving these three hormones. Most of the patients with this phenotype have either a dominant negative mutation in codon 271 (R271W) or are homozygous for a recessive mutation in the POU1F1 gene; to date only one case has been reported with compound heterozygosity for two point mutations. Here, we describe a boy with severe deficiencies of GH, PRL, and TSH who had compound heterozygosity for two novel point mutations in the POU1F1 gene: a 1-bp deletion frameshift mutation (747delA), the first one described to date in this gene, which leads to a nonfunctional truncated protein lacking the entire DNA recognition helix of the POU homeodomain, and a missense mutation in the C-terminal end of the fourth alpha-helix of the POU-specific domain (W193R),which causes a 500-fold reduction in the ability to bind to DNA and activate transcription.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line
  • Heterozygote*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Mutation / genetics*
  • Pituitary Hormones / deficiency*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Transcription Factors / genetics*

Substances

  • Pituitary Hormones
  • Transcription Factors