beta-Catenin and plakoglobin are homologous proteins that function in cell adhesion by linking cadherins to the cytoskeleton and in signaling by transactivation together with lymphoid-enhancing binding/T cell (LEF/TCF) transcription factors. Here we compared the nuclear translocation and transactivation abilities of beta-catenin and plakoglobin in mammalian cells. Overexpression of each of the ...

The wnt pathway regulates the steady state level of beta-catenin, a transcriptional coactivator for the Tcf3/Lef1 family of DNA binding proteins. We demonstrate that Tcf3 can inhibit beta-catenin turnover via its competition with axin and adenomatous polyposis for beta-catenin binding. A mutant of beta-catenin that cannot bind Tcf3 is degraded faster than the wild-type protein in Xenopus embryo...

BACKGROUND Aberrant beta-catenin signaling plays a key role in several cancer types, notably colon, liver and breast cancer. However approaches to modulate beta-catenin activity for therapeutic purposes have proven elusive to date. METHODOLOGY To uncover genetic dependencies in breast cancer cells that harbor active beta-catenin signaling, we performed RNAi-based loss-of-function screens in b...

Nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin is a key event for the development of colorectal cancer. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms underlying translocation of beta-catenin from the cytoplasm or the membrane to the nucleus. The present study examined whether signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) activation is involved in the nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin i...

To explore the protective effect of bilobalide on pheochromocytoma cell injury induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion in vitro. simulate ischemia-reperfusion condition, was The cells were divided into control, and deprivation/ reperfusion+bilobalide groups. viability, proliferative capacity, malondialdehyde level, superoxide dismutase apoptosis, Wnt1 protein level nuclear beta-cateni...

In Xenopus laevis development, beta-catenin plays an important role in the Wnt-signaling pathway by establishing the Nieuwkoop center, which in turn leads to specification of the dorsoventral axis. Cadherins are essential for embryonic morphogenesis since they mediate calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion and can modulate beta-catenin signaling. alpha-catenin links beta-catenin to the actin-base...

Beta-catenin performs critical roles in development and cellular adhesion. More recently, an oncogenic role has been described. In colon cancer, decreased E-cadherin/beta-catenin association is causally linked to increased beta-catenin-regulated gene expression and increased cellular division. Whether the same pathway is active in native epithelia remains unknown. To address this question, we u...

Down regulation of Protein Kinase D1 (PrKD1), a novel serine threonine kinase, in prostate, gastric, breast and colon cancers in humans leads to disease progression. While the down regulation of PrKD1 by DNA methylation in gastric cancer and by nuclear beta-catenin in colon cancer has been shown, the regulatory mechanisms in other cancers are unknown. Because we had demonstrated that PrKD1 is t...

Beta-catenin is a transcriptional activator that is regulated by glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3). GSK-3 is constitutively active in unstimulated cells where it phosphorylates beta-catenin, targeting beta-catenin for rapid degradation. Receptor-induced inhibition of GSK-3 allows beta-catenin to accumulate in the cytoplasm and then translocate to the nucleus where it promotes the transcription...

Several recent studies have shown that proteins of the cadherin-catenin complex are not only involved in cell-cell adhesion but also in the proliferation and differentiation processes. For the first time, we investigated the effect of the quantity of cytoplasmic beta-catenin on dermal fibroblast proliferation by overexpressing human beta-catenin in human dermal fibroblasts. Our results show tha...