The Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins plays a critical role in developmental processes including axis patterning, cellular proliferation, planar cell polarity, cell migration, cell fate specification, and neuronal development. In adults, Wnt signaling is involved in tissue homeostasis, regeneration, and stem/progenitor cell function. Moreover, elevated or attenuated Wnt signaling is found in...

In mice, in utero exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p- dioxin (TCDD) reduces the number of dorsolateral prostatic buds resulting in a smaller dorsolateral prostate and prevents formation of ventral buds culminating in ventral prostate agenesis. The genes and signaling pathways affected by TCDD that are responsible for disrupting prostate development are largely unknown. Here we show that t...

Activation of Wnt signaling through beta-catenin/TCF complexes is a key event in the development of various tumors, in particular colorectal and liver tumors. Wnt signaling is controlled by the negative regulator conductin/axin2/axil, which induces degradation of beta-catenin by functional interaction with the tumor suppressor APC and the serine/threonine kinase GSK3beta. Here we show that cond...

The Wnt/Frizzled (FZD) signaling cascade is important for cell fate determination during embryonic development as well as maintaining tissue homeostasis in the adult. In addition to these physiologic roles, studies have shown that deregulation of Wnt/FZD signaling occurs during carcinogenesis. As an example, over 90% of the colorectal cancers have mutations in adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) o...

BACKGROUND THE COMPLEXITY OF WNT SIGNALING LIKELY STEMS FROM TWO SOURCES: multiple pathways emanating from frizzled receptors in response to wnt binding, and modulation of those pathways and target gene responsiveness by context-dependent signals downstream of growth factor and matrix receptors. Both rac1 and c-jun have recently been implicated in wnt signaling, however their upstream activator...

Porcine circovirus-like virus P1 is an important pathogen of the current pig industry, the infection mechanism is not entirely clear. Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in the growth of young animals and infection of some viruses. This study was designed to demonstrate the effects of P1 infection on the Wnt signaling pathway. In vivo experiments, we demonstrated the down-regulatory e...

In cancer, Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is ubiquitously referred to as an "oncogenic" pathway that promotes tumor progression. This review examines how the regulation and downstream effects of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in cancer varies depending on cellular context, with a focus on malignant melanoma. We emphasize that the cellular homeostasis of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling may represent a more a...

The Wnt pathway effector gene TCF7L2 has been linked to type II diabetes, making it important to study the role of Wnt signaling in diabetes pathogenesis. We examined the expression of multiple Wnt pathway components in pancreases from normal individuals and type II diabetic individuals. Multiple members of the Wnt signaling pathway, including TCF7L2, Wnt2b, beta-catenin, pGSK3beta, TCF3, cycli...

It is known that Wnt-1 signaling inhibits apoptosis by activating beta-catenin/tcf-mediated transcription. Here, we show that blocking Wnt-1 signaling in beta-catenin-deficient mesothelioma cell lines H28 and MS-1 induces apoptotic cell death. Both Wnt-1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) and Dishevelled siRNA induced significant apoptosis in these cell lines. A small molecule inhibitor of c-Jun NH(...

Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays essential roles in mammalian development and tissue homeostasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of regulators involved in modulating this pathway. In this study, we screened miRNAs regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling by using a TopFlash based luciferase reporter. Surprisingly, we found that miR-142 inhibited Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which was inconsistent wi...