Quantitative Procedure to Analyze Nuclear β-Catenin Using Immunofluorescence Tissue Staining

Unwinding a Path to Nuclear β-Catenin

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental process during which epithelial cells lose polarity, cell-cell contacts, and other epithelial characteristics and acquire properties (such as increased motility) that are typical of mesenchymal cells. Common EMT features include loss of E-cadherin at the plasma membrane, increased nuclear β-catenin, gain of vimentin and fibronec-

A Nuclear Function for Armadillo/β-Catenin

The Wnt signaling pathway provides key information during development of vertebrates and invertebrates, and mutations in this pathway lead to various forms of cancer. Wnt binding to its receptor causes the stabilization and nuclear localization of beta-catenin. Nuclear beta-catenin then functions to activate transcription in conjunction with the transcription factor TCF. A recent report has cha...

Non-nuclear staining of thick tissue sections.

Decomposition procedure using methyl orthoformate to analyze silicone polymers.

A new decomposition method for structural analysis of polysiloxanes (silicones) was developed using methyl orthoformate. The siloxane bonds in samples with vinyl and/or methyl side groups decomposed under relatively mild acidic conditions up to around 70°C and were followed by methoxylation at the cleaved linkages with few side reactions. The product yields with respect to the siloxane monomer ...

Quantitative Differences in Nuclear β-catenin and TCF Pattern Embryonic Cells in C. elegans

The Wnt signaling pathway plays a conserved role during animal development in transcriptional regulation of distinct targets in different developmental contexts but it remains unclear whether quantitative differences in the nuclear localization of effector proteins TCF and β-catenin contribute to context-specific regulation. We investigated this question in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos by qua...