When aberrant, factors critical for organ morphogenesis are also commonly involved in disease progression. FOXA1 (forkhead box A1), also known as HNF3α (hepatocyte nuclear factor 3α), is required for postnatal survival due to its essential role in controlling pancreatic and renal function. In addition to regulating a variety of tissues during embryogenesis and early life, rescue experiments hav...

FOXA1 and FOXA2, members of the forkhead transcription factor family, are critical for epithelial differentiation in many endoderm-derived organs, including the pancreas. However, their role in tumor progression is largely unknown. Here, we identified FOXA1 and FOXA2 as important antagonists of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) through thei...

BACKGROUND Forkhead box A1 (FOXA1) expression is associated with various types of tumors; however, the function and underlying mechanism of FOXA1 in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains obscure. METHODS Here, we investigated the role of FOXA1 in the development of HCC by applying gene function gain and loss analysis to HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines, and comparing outcomes wi...

Approximately 50% of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) develop metastatic disease, which is almost invariably lethal. However, our understanding of pathways that drive aggressive behavior of MIBC is incomplete. Members of the FOXA subfamily of transcription factors are implicated in normal urogenital development and urologic malignancies. FOXA proteins are implicated in normal...

FOXA transcription factors are potent, context-specific mediators of development that hold specialized functions in hormone-dependent tissues. Over the last several years, FOXA1 has emerged as a critical mediator of nuclear steroid receptor signalling, manifest at least in part through regulation of androgen receptor and oestrogen receptor activity. Recent findings point towards a major role fo...

The role of transcription factors in regulating the development of midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons is intensively studied owing to the involvement of these neurons in diverse neurological disorders. Here we demonstrate novel roles for the forkhead/winged helix transcription factors Foxa1 and Foxa2 in the specification and differentiation of mDA neurons by analysing the phenotype of Foxa1 an...

The lncRNA HOTAIR is a critical regulator of cancer progression. Chromatin remodeling factor LSH is critical for normal development of plants and mammals. However, the underlying mechanisms causing this in cancer are not entirely clear. The functional diversification of the FOXA1 and FOXA2 contributes to the target genes during evolution and carcinogenesis. Little is known about the ratio of FO...

Midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons are implicated in cognitive functions, neuropsychiatric disorders, and pathological conditions; hence understanding genes regulating their homeostasis has medical relevance. Transcription factors FOXA1 and FOXA2 (FOXA1/2) are key determinants of mDA neuronal identity during development, but their roles in adult mDA neurons are unknown. We used a conditional k...

We have previously shown that a forkhead transcription factor Foxa1 interacts with androgen signaling and controls prostate differentiated response. Here, we show the mouse Foxa1 expression marks the entire embryonic urogenital sinus epithelium (UGE), contrasting with Shh and Foxa2, which are restricted to the basally located cells during prostate budding. The Foxa1-deficient mouse prostate sho...

Prognosis of cancers with lymph node metastasis is known to be very poor; however, it is still controversial whether metastatic potential can be evaluated by expression profiles of primary tumors. Therefore, to address this issue, we compared gene expression profiles of 24 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) with extensive lymph node metastasis and 11 ESCCs with no metastatic lymph node...