Tpit is a highly cell-restricted transcription factor that is required for expression of the pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene and for terminal differentiation of the pituitary corticotroph lineage. Its exclusive expression in pituitary POMC-expressing cells has suggested that its mutation may cause isolated deficiency of pituitary adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). We now show that Tpit-deficient mice constitute a model of isolated ACTH deficiency (IAD) that is very similar to human IAD patients carrying TPIT gene mutations. Through genetic analysis of a panel of IAD patients, we show that TPIT gene mutations are associated at high frequency with early onset IAD, but not with juvenile forms of this deficiency. We identified seven different TPIT mutations, including nonsense, missense, point deletion, and a genomic deletion. This work defines congenital early onset IAD as a relatively homogeneous clinical entity caused by recessive transmission of loss-of-function mutations in the TPIT gene.

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Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is caused by disorders of the P450c21B gene, which, with the P45Oc21A pseudogene, lies in the HLA locus on chromosome 6. The near identity of nucleotide sequences and endonuclease cleavage sites in these A and B loci makes genetic analysis of this disease difficult. We used a genomic DNA probe that detects the P45Oc21 genes (A pseudogene, 3.2 kb; B gene, 3.7 kb in Taq leles thus can easily be classified with this new probing strategy, eliminating many ambiguities resulting from probing with cDNA.

Tpit is a T box transcription factor important for terminal differentiation of pituitary proopiomelanocortin-expressing cells. We demonstrated that human and mouse mutations of the TPIT gene cause a neonatal-onset form of congenital isolated ACTH deficiency (IAD). In the absence of glucocorticoid replacement, IAD can lead to neonatal death by acute adrenal insufficiency. This clinical entity was not previously well characterized because of the small number of published cases. Since identification of the first TPIT mutations, we have enlarged our series of neonatal IAD patients to 27 patients from 21 unrelated families. We found TPIT mutations in 17 of 27 patients. We identified 10 different TPIT mutations, with one mutation found in five unrelated families. All patients appeared to be homozygous or compound heterozygous for TPIT mutations, and their unaffected parents are heterozygous carriers, confirming a recessive mode of transmission. We compared the clinical and biological phenotype of the 17 IAD patients carrying a TPIT mutation with the 10 IAD patients with normal TPIT-coding sequences. This series of neonatal IAD patients revealed a highly homogeneous clinical presentation, suggesting that this disease may be an underestimated cause of neonatal death. Identification of TPIT gene mutations as the principal molecular cause of neonatal IAD permits prenatal diagnosis for families at risk for the purpose of early glucocorticoid replacement therapy.

reaching an aetiological diagnosis in cases of male intersex is difficult because of the variability of individual cases. Hormonal tests may help to discriminate between partial androgen insensitivity and gonadal dysgenesis/true hermaphroditism but are of less use for differentiating from unexplained male pseudohermaphroditism. Sequencing of exons 2-8 of the androgen receptor after study of testosterone precursors following human chorionic gonadotrophin stimulation is recommended when gonadal dysgenesis and true hermaphroditism can be excluded.

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Targeted disruption of the orphan nuclear receptor SF1 results in the absence of adrenals and gonads, establishing that this transcription factor is implicated in gonadal determination and adrenal development. Four human SF1 gene mutations have been described to date: three (G35E, R92Q, R255L) were responsible for adrenal insufficiency associated with a gonadal dysgenesis in two 46, XY individuals, one (8 bp deletion in exon 6) resulted in gonadal dysgenesis without adrenal insufficiency. We identified a new heterozygous SF1 gene mutation, C16X, in a 46, XY patient showing gonadal dysgenesis with normal adrenal function: low basal levels of AMH and testosterone (T), weak T response to hCG, hypoplastic testes with abundant seminiferous tubules but rare germ cells. This mutation causes premature termination of translation and should abolish all SF1 activity. Therefore haploinsufficiency could explain the deleterious effect of this mutation in our patient suggesting that testis development is more SF1 dose-dependent than adrenal development. Although the same mechanism explains the deleterious effects of SF1 missense mutations, recent studies have demonstrated an additional dominant negative effect. These data suggest that heterozygous mutation impaired adrenal development only if the two mechanisms, gene dosage and dominant negative effects occur.

A patient with familial male pseudohermaphroditism was considered to be a normal female up to the time of puberty. At puberty, she had normal breast development but there was simultaneous enlargement of the clitoris and the body hair developed with a male distribution. The internal genitalia were male in type. Under basal conditions, the plasma concentration of testosterone (T) was low for a male subject but plasma levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHAS) were 2-3 times higher than those of normal men. The plasma level of androstenedione (A) was 10 times normal. Following gonadectomy, the pattern of plasma androgens was similar to that of a normal woman. Prior to operation, the basal urinary excretion of estrone, estradiol and estriol was much increased above that of a normal man but it became normal after gonadectomy. Eighteen months after gonadectomy, both before and after adrenal stimulation, the plasma androgens showed the pattern and concentrations expected in the normal adult female. The same could be said of the peripheral in terconversion between T & A. The data strongly suggest that the patient had an incomplete 17-ketosteroid reductase defect and that this defect was limited to the testes. (J Clin Endocr 32: 604, 1971)