AKT1 and pituitary gland adenoma: Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a serine/threonine kinase involved in diverse cellular processes, including protein translation, mRNA turnover, and protein stability, mediates, at least in part, some of the biological actions of Akt.[2, 3, 11] Based on our recent demonstration that basal Akt activation increased cellular growth in pituitary adenoma, we herein tested the hypothesis that mTOR activation, downstream from Akt signaling, may increase the growth and survival of pituitary adenoma cells.