Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is required for embryonic patterning and postnatal physiology in invertebrates and vertebrates. With the revelation that the primary cilium is crucial for mammalian Hh signaling, the prevailing view that Hh signal transduction mechanisms are conserved across species has been challenged. However, more recent progress on elucidating the function of core Hh pathway cytosoli...

Morphogens are classically defined as molecules that control patterning by acting at a distance to regulate gene expression in a concentration-dependent manner. In the Drosophila wing imaginal disc, secreted Hedgehog (Hh) forms an extracellular gradient that organizes patterning along the anterior-posterior axis and specifies at least three different domains of gene expression. Although the pre...

BACKGROUND Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is required for embryogenesis and continues to play key roles postembryonically in many tissues, influencing growth, stem cell proliferation, and tumorigenesis. Systems for conditional regulation of Hh signaling facilitate the study of these postembryonic Hh functions. RESULTS We used the hsp70l promoter to generated three heat-shock-inducible transgenic lin...

The proteins of the Hedgehog (Hh) family are secreted proteins exerting short- and long-range control over various cell fates in developmental patterning. The Hh gradient in Drosophila wing imaginal discs consists of apical and basolateral secreted pools, but the mechanisms governing the overall establishment of the gradient remain unclear. We investigated the relative contributions of endocyto...

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling regulates multiple aspects of metazoan development and tissue homeostasis, and is constitutively active in numerous cancers. We identified Ubr3, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, as a novel, positive regulator of Hh signaling in Drosophila and vertebrates. Hh signaling regulates the Ubr3-mediated poly-ubiquitination and degradation of Cos2, a central component of Hh signaling. In ...

We present evidence that hedgehog (hh) protein secreted by posterior compartment cells plays a key role in patterning the posterior portion of the anterior compartment in adult abdominal segments. Loss of function of hh in the hh(ts2) mutant causes the loss of posterior tergite characteristics in the anterior compartment, whereas ectopic expression driven by hs-hh or the gain-of-function allele...

The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is involved in embryogenesis and physiologic processes including cell survival and proliferation. We used the HT-29 and other human colon carcinoma cell lines to investigate Hh signaling and biological functions in colonic epithelial cells. HT-29 cells were cultured under different conditions and exposed to various stimuli. The expression of Hh pathway components and r...

Hand hygiene (HH) is the single most important factor in the prevention of health care-acquired infections. The 3 most frequently reported methods of measuring HH compliance are: (1) direct observation, (2) self-reporting by health care workers (HCWs), and (3) indirect calculation based on HH product usage. This article presents the results of a 12-month multicenter collaboration assessing HH c...

Morphogens regulate tissue patterning through their distribution in concentration gradients. Emerging research establishes a role for specialized signalling filopodia, or cytonemes, in morphogen dispersion and signalling. Previously we demonstrated that Hedgehog (Hh) morphogen is transported via vesicles along cytonemes emanating from signal-producing cells to form a gradient in Drosophila epit...

The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway regulates embryonic development and may be aberrantly activated in a wide variety of human cancers. Efforts to target pathogenic Hh signaling have steadily progressed from the laboratory to the clinic, and the recent approval of the Hh pathway inhibitor vismodegib for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma represents an important milestone. On the other ...