• TSH subunit gene expression of the pituitary hormones
• Cell specific, Developmental, and Regulated Expression of pituitary hormone promoters in transgenic mice
• Transcription Factors Controlling Thyrotropin Subunit Genes
• Transcription factors in human pituitary tumors
• Somatostatin Receptor Expression and Regulation
• Mechanisms of Growth Arrest by Thyroid Hormones

• Murine thyrotropic tumor propagation in hypothyroid mice
• Gonadotrope and thyrotrope specific promoters in transgenic mice
• cDNA and genomic library construction and screening
• RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) cloning
• DNase I footprint analysis
• Tissue-specific gene knockouts using cre and flp recombinase

• Woodmansee WW, Gordon DF, Dowding JM, Stolz B, Lloyd RV, James RA, Wood WM, Ridgway EC 2000 The effect of thyroid hormone and a long-acting somatostatin analogue on TtT-97 murine thyrotropic tumors. Thyroid 10:533-541.

• Gordon DF, Woodmansee WW, Lewis SR, James RA, Wood WM, and Ridgway EC. Cloning of the Mouse Somatostatin Receptor Subtype 5 Gene: Promoter Structure and Function. Endocrinology, 140:5598-5608, 1999.

• Wood WM, Dowding JM, Gordon DF, and Ridgway EC. An upstream regulator of the glycoprotein hormone alpha-subunit gene mediates pituitary cell type activation and repression by different mechanisms. J. Biol. Chem. 274:15526-15532, 1999.

• Brinkmeier M L, Gordon DF, Dowding JM, Saunders TL, Kendall SK, Sarapura VD, Wood WM, Ridgway EC, and Camper SA. Cell specific expression of the mouse glycoprotein hormone a -subunit gene requires multiple interacting DNA elements in transgenic mice and cultured cells. Mol. Endocrinol. 12:622-633, 1998.

• Yusta B, Alarid ET, Gordon DF, Ridgway EC, and Mellon PL. The TSHb -subunit gene is repressed by thyroid hormone in a novel thyrotrope cell line, Mouse Ta T1 Cells. Endocrinology, 139:4476-82. 1998.

• Gordon DF, et al Pit-1 and GATA-2 interact and functionally cooperate to activate the thyrotropin b -subunit promoter. J Biol Chem. 1997 272:24339-47.

The overall goal of my research is to define the molecular events involved in the cell specific regulation of the glycoprotein hormone genes within the anterior pituitary gland. These hormones have profound physiological effects on general metabolism and reproduction. By studying how these genes are normally expressed and regulated in small specialized cells in the body, one can begin to understand how their regulation is altered in tumors of the anterior pituitary. More recently, I have been studying the mechanisms by which thyroid hormone regulates growth inhibition of the thyrotrope cell.

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